Jessica Williams founded Food Forward Thinking LLC to support the growth of foodservice in convenience stores, restaurants, and grocery chains. Her consulting company’s specialty is providing menu labeling compliance solutions, developing foodservice platforms, and elevating executional consistency. Williams works with food distributors, equipment manufacturers, and a broad range of foodservice operators to dial in recipe cost models, source ingredients, develop training, and provide nutrition facts for proprietary food and beverage items.
Prior to founding her consulting firm, Williams led fresh food product development and quality assurance at Thorntons, Inc. convenience store chain. The foodservice platform established there is leading the industry in evolving consumer expectations and elevating food quality.
Williams learned foundational product development knowledge at Yum! Brands, Inc., where she conducted consumer research and developed food and equipment items for the Kentucky Fried Chicken brand for ten years. She has extensive experience with large-scale commercialization, experimental test design, and consumer research. She has supported the growth of the KFC brand globally with assignments in the United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and Latin America.
Williams holds a Bachelor of Science in Food Science & Technology from the University of Kentucky and currently lives on an organic dairy farm in Kentucky.