The Food Innovation Center (FIC) is a unique resource for food and beverage companies. We support business needs in product & process development, sensory & consumer testing, marketing, food safety, regulatory guidance, and more.
The FIC is a joint collaboration between Oregon State University and the Oregon Department of Agriculture.
Product and Process Development
Our staff will work with you to outline a scope of work customized for your project that integrates food science, culinary expertise, and food safety. We provide client-oriented, interactive, and hands-on product development work:
- Ideation to further your concepts
- Overcoming a quality issue
- Finding replacement ingredients for all natural
and organic ingredients - Processing and production improvements
- Culinary sciences
- Manufacturing scale-up
Sensory and Consumer Testing Program
Our client-oriented project design and development meet client research objectives. We provide unbiased, third-party testing to deliver a real-time view of consumers’ sensory product demands in the market using state-of-the-art facilities and technology.
- Preference/Acceptance and Difference tests
- Focus groups and interviews
- Test design and execution with consumers
- Large database of demographically diverse
populations - Statistical analysis and interpretation of results for reporting
- Off-site testing
Agriculture Marketing and Development
Trade assistance
Domestic and international trade assistance programs help Oregon farmers, ranchers, fishermen, and value-add companies with market development.
Farm to School Connecting local farmers, packers, and food processors with school cafeterias and enabling more Oregon agricultural products to be served in school lunches.
This helps connect youth to food production through school gardens, field trips to farms and ranches, and grower visits to the classroom. Business development Retains, expands, and recruits agricultural and food businesses.
Food Safety Program
We offer a variety of trainings and resources to help processors understand and apply food safety under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). We have experts in food microbiology, food toxicology, FSMA, HACCP, cGMPs, and GAPs.
We also work on specialized research projects to investigate and mitigate contamination and food safety issues throughout the food chain.
- FSPCA Preventive Controls for Human Food
- (PCQI)
- Produce Safety Alliance grower training
Food safety consultations for the food industry - Environmental monitoring workshops (coming
soon)
Listeria troubleshooting, genomic sequencing, and antimicrobial profiling.
Shelf Life & Food Engineering
We help clients understand the quality, longevity, and processing of their food products. Our team of experts in food engineering will help preserve the flavor, texture, and color of your product.
- Standard and accelerated shelf-life testing
- Establishment of expiration, best-by and sell-by dates
- Consultation on packaging selection and sell-by-dates
- pH, brix and water activity testing
- Texture Analysis
- Food engineering & processing technologies
Located in Portland’s Pearl District We are nationally known for helping new food entrepreneurs and existing companies develop and bring new and reformulated products to market. Our state-of-the-art facilities are housed within a 33,000-ft2 building located in Portland, Oregon.
To support your business, we have a modern sensory lab consisting of 10 panelist booths, a research kitchen, a focus group room with private viewing and streaming capabilities, customizable pilot processing incubator, as well as analytical biosafety labs.
In addition, the FIC has a large classroom to host events. Our team provides numerous trainings and workshops, including the [email protected] series.
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