What the facility does
Provides education, training, research and technical expertise to the food and beverage manufacturing industry in Canada.
Areas of expertise
The Conestoga Food Research and Innovation Lab has capabilities in several research areas such as recipe development and up-scaling, proof of concept, food processing, packaging solutions, food safety, prototype development, process optimization, and process automation.
Research services
- Recipe development and optimization
- Proof of concept
- Product up-scaling
- Process optimization and automation
- Shelf life improvement and evaluation
- Thermal processing (UHT and retorting)
- Prototype development and testing
- Packaging solutions
- Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP)
- Waste reduction
- Nutritional label creation
- Equipment rental for productions for consumer testing
Sectors of application
- Agriculture, animal science and food
- Manufacturing and processing
Specialized labs and equipment
| Specialized lab | Equipment | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Pilot Plant and Bloom Kitchen (Bakery product line) | Globe SP30 Planetary Mixer | Industrial size mixer
|
| Pilot Plant and Bloom Kitchen (Bakery product line) | Globe SP60 Planetary Mixer | Industrial size mixer |
| Pilot Plant and Bloom Kitchen (Bakery product line) | Doyon AEF035 Spiral Dough Mixer | Industrial size mixer |
| Pilot Plant and Bloom Kitchen (Bakery product line) | SANCASSIANO SE Spiral Mixer | Industrial size mixer |
| Pilot Plant and Bloom Kitchen (Bakery product line) | Tagliavini RVT 665-E Rotating Rack Oven | Baking oven; steam generator for high volume steam production. |
| Pilot Plant and Bloom Kitchen (Bakery product line) | Doyon 1T3 Artisan Stone Triple Deck Oven | Stone deck; best choice for old world artisan style crusty breads; includes shot injection.
|
| Pilot Plant and Bloom Kitchen (Bakery product line) | Doyon LMA6201 Reversible Dough Sheeter | Can be used for sheeting/molding bread doughs; reversible.
|
| Pilot Plant and Bloom Kitchen (Bakery product line) | Tagliavini M1230924 Proofing Chamber | Programmable; baking delay with control time, temperature, and humidity.
|
| Pilot Plant and Bloom Kitchen (Bakery product line) | VEMAG Robot 500 Vacuum Filler | A hopper with the capability of portioning products to a given weight. |
| Pilot Plant and Bloom Kitchen (Bakery product line) | KOENIG Mini Rex Futura Dough Dividing Machine coupled with a KOENIG GARSCHRANK GS2000 compact machine | Ideal for bun production; can proof the dough up to 20 min; can be connected to conveyer belts.
|
Pilot Plant (Beverage line)
| SPX Flow, model LM-DD-50-DS mixing system (50 gallons) | Provide a consistent and fast mixing of ingredients by vortex action. Ideal for mixing powdery and liquid ingredients together breaking lumps easily; can be directly connected to UHT or product can be taken out manually after mixing. |
Pilot Plant (Beverage line)
| SPX Flow, model N10454 liquid collection tank (200 gallons) | Connected with the mixing system and the UHT. Can be used for diluting a product that was produced in the mixing system. |
Pilot Plant (Beverage line) | 100L and 250L mixing tanks with different mixers, collection tank (200L) | For beverage collection before filling at the filling station. |
Pilot Plant (Beverage line) | Accuteck Packaging Equipment model 40-F44-12 filling station | Automated filling station. Not aseptic technique. |
Pilot Plant (Thermal Processing) | (SPX Flow type SPP, NO-5011004) UHT Pilot Plant | With tube and plate heat exchangers; Pasteurization of beverages; has both UHT/HTST capability (UHT-Ultra High Temperature; HTST-High Temperature Short Time). |
Pilot Plant (Thermal Processing) | SPX Flow G5-87BX Homogenizer | Homogenize liquids; suitable for liquids with fat or proteins. |
Pilot Plant (Thermal Processing) | Steriflow Thermal Processing 911R Retort | Thermal processing of food and beverage; has fixed, shaking, and oscillation baskets; heated using hot water injection. |
Pilot Plant (Packaging) | MULTIVAC T 300 Tray Sealer | Can be used for packaging food into trays; can be connected with the MAP system. |
Pilot Plant (Packaging) | ZENITH PFM vertical form fill and seal packaging machine | Can be used for packaging food into bags; can be connected with the MAP system. |
Pilot Plant (Packaging) | MAP system | MAP - Modified Atmosphere Packaging; can be connected with both vertical filler and tray sealer. |
Pilot Plant
| S+S GLS 350/150/100/289/143 metal detector | Can be used for detecting metallic contaminants in packaged foods. |
Bloom Kitchen
| Cleveland steam kettles with 140L and 95L capacity | Can be used for cooking liquid foods like soup or chili; with a proper mixing attachment, it can be used to test in cooking thick/solid foods as well. |
Bloom kitchen
| Delfield T14D ConvoChill Blast Chiller/Shock Freezer | To bring the product temperature down faster. |
Bloom kitchen
| Selmi Chocolate Machinery model Selmi Plus EX continuous chocolate tempering machine | For tempering chocolate. |
Bloom kitchen
| Taylor Company model 104-27 batch freezer | Can be used for making ice cream, gelato, sorbet or Italian ice. |
Bloom kitchen
| Carpigiani Model Lab 100B batch freezer | Can be used for making ice cream, gelato, sorbet or Italian ice. |
Bloom kitchen
| Pacojet batch freezer | Make quick and small batch size ice cream; can be used for flavor profile testing. |
Bloom kitchen
| Bradley Smoker Digital 6-Rack Electric Smoker, model BTDS108P | Can be used to produce smoked meat/fish |
| Applied Research Lab | P&P Optica Hyperspectral Imaging System | A system with combined NIR and imaging technology; can be used for in-line evaluation of product quality by using parameters such as moisture, protein, fat contents, waste reduction, etc. Scan only a millimeter scale thickness of the product. |
Applied Research Lab
| Texture Technologies Corp. TA.XT Plus Texture Analyzer | Can be used for product quality evaluation; textural parameters such as crispiness, firmness, breakability, spreadability, tensile strength etc. can be measured. |
| Applied Research Lab | CW Brabender Instruments Inc. Model Farinograph-TS | Evaluate wheat flour quality and water absorption; can be used in bakery product development research. |
| Applied Research Lab | Perten Instruments BVM-6600 BVM Volumeter | Measure the volume of food products using laser technology. |
| Applied Research Lab | Perten Instruments DA 7250 NIR Spectrometer | Can measure moisture and protein content of solids and liquids (NIR – near infrared). |
Applied Research Lab
| Quartz Analytics CDR FoodLab® | Measure rancidity of food products; accompanied with a nut press that can extract oil in small quantities and without heating. |
Applied Research Lab
| Memmert GmbH + Co. KG, model Memmert HPP IPP plus environmental chamber with humidity control | A chamber with temperature and humidity control; can be used for conditioning or storing products under controls environments. |
Applied Research Lab
| Labthink Instruments Co. Ltd. VAC-VBS Gas Permeability Tester | Measure gas barrier properties of packaging films.
|
Applied Research Lab
| Labthink Instruments Co. Ltd. TSY-W3 Water Vapor Permeability Tester | Measure moisture barrier properties of packaging films. |
Private and public sector research partners
- Nature’s Mix
- National Pasta
- Jakeman’s Maple Products
- Against the Grain Farms
- Oak Ridge Manufacturing Ltd.
Additional information
| Title | URL |
|---|---|
| Governments investing $2.76M to boost agri-food research innovation | https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/1001047/governments-investing-276m-to-boost-agri-food-research-i… |