Food & Drink

The Centres of Industrial Collaboration (CICs) are assisting businesses to maximise food quality, find lasting technical solutions, help the food industry add value to its products and provide safer and more nutritious food. Expertise ranges from processing, waste management, packaging, safety and storage.

Food Processing

The Food Chain CIC boasts a hygienically designed food pilot plant to enable companies to develop and test new products for commercial viability, and state-of-the-art imaging and microscopes to understand food texture and develop new formulations. The centre is also investigating applications of ‘spinning disc’ technology, to replace existing methods of product mixing, prevent contamination during production and create new flavour systems for products. Together with the Particle Science and Engineering CIC, the centres are investigating the use of ultrasound in the processing of industrial soft materials.

Food Storage

The Food Chain CIC boasts a controlled environment rooms to help explore food storage issues and advanced electronics development laboratories. Businesses can benefit from the centre’s expertise in the shelf-life of food and cryogenic methods to develop more efficient chilling and freezing processes.

Food Waste

The management of food waste will become an increasing burden on the food industry because of legislation, environmental concerns and increasing disposal costs The Food Chain CIC, Greenchemistry CIC and the Environment Technologies CIC have teamed up to establish an uniquely expert group to work with industry on developing novel processes to convert food waste into high value materials such as fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals, adsorbents or feed stocks for other manufacturing processes.

Food Packaging

Expertise in product design within the Design Futures CIC is enabling businesses to achieve higher margins by winning new business, not on low price, but on product differentiation. The centre is working with Robinson Paperboard Packaging to deliver new product concepts. Recent product innovations include COOL-AIRTM, a cooler for wines, the incorporation of RFID (radio frequency identification) tags into paperboard and RIM-FIXTM, a pot for dips that hooks onto the side of a snack tube.

Digital Print CIC has expertise in printing applications for the food and drink industries, including best-before end labels and time temperature indicator labels.

Related CIC’s:

Food Chain CIC
Particles CIC
Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence
Design Futures CIC
Digital Printing CIC