Food
Practical support for food and drink businesses developing new products, processes and packaging.
Innovation support for food and drink
Food and drink businesses face particular pressures, from shelf life and food safety to changing consumer tastes and rising costs. The services to support innovation offered by Nottingham Trent University, the University of Derby and the University of Nottingham are designed to help these firms test better answers to those pressures.
Support draws on the wider expertise of the three universities, and on EU funding that has helped to keep it accessible to small and medium-sized producers.
Testing new products and processes
Development work often starts with a recipe or a production line that needs to change. Teams can explore alternative ingredients, trial new processing steps, and measure the effect on taste, texture and consistency.
Each trial is recorded so that the business can repeat successful results and understand the reasons for failure.
Packaging, safety and shelf life
Packaging and preservation are often the difference between a promising product and a viable one. Support can cover packaging trials, shelf-life testing and the checks needed to meet food safety expectations before a product reaches the market.
Getting started
- Describe the product or process you want to improve
- Agree which trials would give the most useful evidence
- Plan access to facilities and university expertise
- Review results and decide on the next stage of development