A wider range of food and drink businesses from the whole supply chain will have access to specialist support and expertise with the new Food Innovation Centre.
The Food Innovation Centre at the University of Nottingham is being re-launched to extend its service across the UK, building on the work it has done with SMEs across the East Midlands over the past six years.
The Food Innovation Centre can provide a range of scientific and technical guidance to food and drink businesses, supporting the development of products and processes, from conception to consumption.
The new service is being run as a commercial consultancy and offers a range of services. These include; product development, optimisation and application with access to food technologists, development kitchen and food processing hall. Process optimisation and scaling-up, which can include trialling pilot equipment to assess suitability for formulation and processes before investment is made.
Sensory research, focus groups and product flavour testing can also be provided to develop and refine new products that meet the needs and tastes of consumers.
The Food Innovation Centre provides access to a range of academic experts who can provide scientific knowledge and input and lead tailored quick turnaround research projects. The team can also advise on student projects and placements.
Expanding our remit will allow more food and drink manufacturers and producers to access the specialist support we offer. Combining academic expertise and state-of-the-art facilities with commercial knowledge we are able to help businesses to bring new products to market more quickly.
Since its inception six years ago the Food Innovation Centre has supported over 270 local businesses and helped to bring 24 new products to market.
One of these successful businesses is plant-based food company Jampa's. With a growing portfolio of, and in some cases award winning plant-based products, Jampa's have a clear concept to launch business plan. The company required initial scientific support in the textural optimisation of one of their plant-based products. Encompassing knowledge gain, direct contacts with relevant specialist ingredient manufacturers, practical experimentation and on-going development support, the collaboration is now further extending to support on-going product excellence across the Jampa's product portfolio
It has been a pleasure to work with the Food Innovation Team at the University of Nottingham. Thank you for your brilliant work, we definitely got a result and we look forward to continuing to work together to help drive Jampa's R&D process, developing plant-based product excellence.
A launch event taking place for the new Food Innovation Centre on 26 January at the University of Nottingham's Sutton Bonington Campus. To find out more or attend sign up here.
