Ever walk through a candle store? How about a candy shop? What about the perfume section of a department store? Well, roll all those into one place, and that’s kinda what it’s like walking into FONA International (Flavors of North America). You’re sense of smell kicks into overdrive, and then it just goes wacky. It’s quite a challenge trying to identify all the different smells.
The Prairie Ridge High School Chemistry classes visited the FONA facility in Geneva. The students packed into three buses for the hour long drive. Upon arrival they were ushered into an auditorium with large floor to ceiling windows. The students had to listen to a rather dull presentation on what FONA International is. Luckily there was some entertainment provided by the window cleaners who kept distracting the students and interrupting the speakers. After the presentation was over the students were given smell-sticks and asked to guess what scent it was. Prairie Ridge students identified every last one of the scents correctly.
After the scent test the students were given cutting edge fashion glasses and hairnets to wear, and the tour began. FONA prides itself on being a happy workplace. They have a gym, they offer yoga classes, there are two coffee break areas, and they have onsite daycare. The students saw the latest in flavor making machines (did you know that FONA’s most popular flavor is vanilla?) and toured the laboratory with a wall-size model of the Periodic Table of Elements.
The tour almost took an hour, and by then many of the students were hungry. Luckily, it was time for the food tasting! The students were given samples to critique but they weren’t allowed to keep them. When the students finished tasting their gum they were asked to spit it out and fill out a form saying whether or not they liked it. That concluded the tour of the FONA International.
After all the food tasting the students were more than ready for some food eating. The buses took them to the nearest Portillo’s where they proceeded to “taste test” everything on the menu. Perhaps next time the Prairie Ridge chemistry classes should visit a Portillo’s factory.
