A new innovation pathway developed at the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) should help food businesses make their ideas a reality. This is according to food technologist Joy Alexander, Head of the Food Technology Development Branch of CAFRE.
The college is an integral part of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) in Northern Ireland. It consists of three campuses: Loughry which specialises in food education and food industry support, Greenmount which specialises in agriculture and horticulture and Enniskillen Campus which specialises in equine.
The Food Technology Development Branch is located on the Loughry campus. “We're trying to create a pathway that goes from the ideas right through to commercialisation,” explains Joy.
Dedicated innovation centre
The first part of that process is the recently opened Food Innovation Centre, which was opened in May 2015. It aims to “stimulate, encourage and support the process of food innovation and to showcase innovation in sustainable building design”, according to Joy. It includes an ideas hub to encourage creativity by food businesses and enable access to market intelligence reports.
Initial ideas are converted into product concepts in development kitchens and the enhanced individual and group sensory facility allows businesses to conduct accurate consumer feedback. The final stage involves the production of a packaging prototype that allows potential customers to assess what the product may look like on the shelf.
Process to manufacturing
Once food businesses are ready to scale up their idea, Joy explains the next step in the innovation pathway is process development. This is done using the extensive pilot processing equipment contained within the Food Technology Centre. Once the business knows how the product is to be manufactured, the next question is where to manufacture it. Joy says CAFRE has a Food Business Incubation Centre for that purpose.
The aim of the Food Business Incubation Centre is to encourage businesses to take that first step and also to prepare them for the future commercial realities of food production outside the centre. This model allows them to assess their business viability. There are eight units in the Centre.
“These units are available for new-start businesses and also increasingly we've seen a lot of larger businesses that want to assess the market before making a substantial investment on their own site,” says Joy. “We work with on average 250-300 businesses every year and our support is tailored to their needs.”
Joy adds that CAFRE has a great combination of commercially-oriented food technologists and fantastic facilities. “We are here to help meet the needs of individual food businesses and the sector.”
Education options
CAFRE also provides further and higher education programmes as well as an extensive range of short courses. Joy explains: “people working in industry can complete the education programmes on a part-time basis or do one- or two-day courses”.
Areas of training include food safety, HACCP, allergens, and many more, and CAFRE can also design specific training programmes to meet the needs of individual businesses.
Joy says CAFRE is very keen to collaborate with others. Although it currently works extensively with companies on both sides of the border, one area it hopes to develop more in future is international collaboration.
For more details, please contact Joy at joy.alexander@dardni.gov.uk or (+44) 028 867 68132, or see cafre.ac.uk.
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