He grew up with a sweet tooth, now he's got a sweet job

Jeff Green oversees quality control and helps develop new candy at NECCO, which makes Sweethearts and Sky Bars. (Dina Rudick/Globe Staff)

Imagine eating up to 2 pounds of candy every day. It's all in a day's work for Jeff Green, a candy executive at NECCO, the New England Confectionery Co.

"You learn to spit after a while," says Green, who is in charge of research and quality for the Revere-based company, which manufacturers 4 billion of the trademark NECCO wafers a year, as well as other candy classics, including conversation hearts, malted milk balls, thin chocolate mints, saltwater taffy, and sugar "buttons."

Green oversees the candy production lines for more than 30 different processes, a maze of high-tech cooking, cooling chambers, batch rolling, chocolate molding, and packaging machinery that would make Willy Wonka dizzy. "Quality control means getting out on the line and checking everything from raw materials to labeling, making sure that everything is working OK," says Green. "There's still a bit of art and mystery involved in the science of making candy."

NECCO is known for its classic brands, such as Sweethearts, Haviland, and Clark bars; but staying ahead of the competition means constantly experimenting with new releases, such as its upscale Café Select brand, a mix of crunchy real chai tea centers covered by dark and milk chocolate. "Commodity and food prices have gone up quite a bit, and like others, we face pressures to keep prices down or notch it up to a different level, and this is our attempt at a premium product that takes advantage of the popularity of coffee," says Green.

Green is constantly experimenting, trying out different flavor combinations, working with flavor or ingredient vendors to create new concoctions. He mixes small experimental candy batches in an electric fry pot and larger quantities in a 25-gallon kettle. "The only flavor that doesn't work for my palate is liver," he says.

Chocolate and liver? Are you kidding me?
I'm playing around with things here that you can't even imagine. I'm even experimenting with french fries, ketchup, and hot dogs. I'm not actually putting chocolate on hot dogs, but I'm looking at the seasoning blend of hot dogs, as well as chili and other things. After all, there are no boundaries - what doesn't go with sugar? Already out on the marketplace, there's chocolate with bacon, dark chocolate with curry, and other interesting twists. Sweet and savory mix well.

Sweethearts is a popular brand - you even offer them in Sweetheart Hispanic Boxes. What's the next language you'll possibly stamp on these conversation hearts?
Sweetheart Hispanic Boxes aren't really new - they've been around for 10 years or so. But I would go with Cantonese and change the flavor profile to appeal to the audience.

So maybe ginger-spiced Sweethearts? What would happen next, if you decided to go with this idea?
We'd go to the factory and scale up, make a large batch. If it comes out good, we make samples and test it; if it's bad, we discount it in the store, or we actually have people who buy the products we don't use or the waste that drops on the floor. They take the candy, blend it down, and feed it to livestock.

Sounds, uh, yummy. Which brings up a rather unappetizing question: How do you avoid getting rat's hair or pieces of junk in the candy?
Well, we don't usually like to talk about that, but we check each step of the process along the way, and even have metal detectors at the end of each assembly line to make sure there are no pieces of trapped metal caught in the candy. As for insects or mice hair, an outside service monitors the building, and we keep our eyes peeled. Bugs in the food are always a concern, of course.

Let's change the subject to something more pleasant. How did you get into this career?
It's somewhat ironic that as a child growing up, we always had one cupboard in the kitchen that was loaded with candy. A sweet tooth runs in my family. But I actually started my career in a meat company handling quality control. It was actually not much of a transition to go from meat to candy - processing and quality control translate across most food boundaries.

How much can you earn in this profession?
Starting out, an R&D tech can earn from the $30,000s to well over $100,000 after gaining a good amount of experience. A quality assurance tech probably runs about the same range - the top salary may be somewhat lower.

Do you run into a lot of candy fanatics and loyalists in your dealings?
There is an entire candy universe out there, with candy blogs that critique specific products, and more. I really should pay more attention to it. When we scaled down at our Wisconsin plant, there was an uproar because people thought Candy Raisins were going to be discontinued. A "Save the Candy Raisins" campaign was launched. The thing I found funny about it was there was no uprising to save jobs or the factory - just save the raisins.

Do you get to bring home free candy for Halloween?
You bet. I live in Providence, R.I., and I give out big Sky Bars, rolls of NECCO wafers, and more. None of those little miniature-sized candies. You wouldn't believe how the kids' eyes light up. I'll do it again this year.

Tell me where you live, and we'll send some kids over.
No way!