Product development
By partnering with the Conestoga Food Research & Innovation Lab you have access to our culinary and food science experts as well as physical, chemical and microbiological testing services to assist in developing your product. We have expertise in:
- Commercial ingredient sourcing
- Collaborative benchtop formula development
- Commercialization of restaurant favourites for retail
- Scale-up from bench-top to pilot-scale
- Development of bill of materials
- Nutrition labelling (by database calculation) and ingredient declaration
Process development
Whether you are moving from producing in your kitchen to a co-packer, or looking to automate to a high-speed line, by engaging with our team of multi-disciplinary faculty and researchers we can support your next step of growth.
- Recommend scale-up for current manual processes while keeping cost, food safety and product quality top of mind
- Process analysis, sustainability, data analytics and visualization
- Troubleshoot production challenges at your facility with our industry-experienced staff
Novel ingredient assessment
Our team will help you position your novel ingredient to ensure it is customer ready.
- Determine relevant parameters and conduct testing to establish a technical specification sheet
- Develop formulations to understand ingredient applications and initiate customer engagement
- Support regulatory assessments or applications
Laboratory services
Microbiological
- Aerobic count – indication of spoilage
- Yeast & mold – indicates formula instability
- Coliform – indication of poor sanitation and hygiene
- Lactic acid bacteria – specific to certain products, indication of spoilage
Chemical
Chemical parameters are measured to provide data as part of product development activities, quality testing or shelf- life data such as:
- Fat oxidation – quality test to determine condition of fats, used in shelf-life study
- pH – acidity of a product, key information in determining food safety risk of a product
- Salinity – amount of salt ingredients in a formula
Physical
Physical parameters provide data to support product development activities, quality testing or shelf life data such as:
- Near infrared spectroscopy – non-destructive rapid quality testing using optical imaging
- Farinograph – measure of wheat flour quality
- Texture analysis – used in shelf-life or product development activities to quantify organoleptic texture
- Laser volume measurement – measure physical volume of a sample by creating a digital 3D model
- Water activity – critical food safety parameter indicates the availability of water for microbial growth
- Moisture – quantity of water in sample
- Hyperspectral imaging – non-destructive rapid quality testing using optical imaging
- Viscosity (Brookfield) – quantifies property of liquid “thickness”
- Consistometer (Bostwick) – rapid test to compare thickness of liquid
Packaging
Food, consumer goods and B2B package testing available such as:
- Material characterization – polymer, corrugate properties
- Packaging testing - measure barrier properties, strength and many more
- Pre-shipment testing – drop testing, transportation testing (vibration table testing of full pallet)