Centre for Culinary Innovation

The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), Edmonton, Alberta
What the facility does

Specializes in bench-top food and beverage product development, characterization of new food ingredients, and recipe development with a focus on flavour first

Areas of expertise

NAIT’s Centre for Culinary Innovation has expertise in new food and beverage product development that blends culinary creativity with food science principles to create foods that taste amazing and scale-up from bench top. The Centre has a focus on the utilization of crops grown in Alberta and specializes in plant-based foods.

The Centre has a multi-functional Research Kitchen, Meat Laboratory and Cheese Laboratory that allow food businesses to access expertise, equipment and infrastructure.

Research services
  • Food and beverage concept ideation
  • Bench-top food product development
  • Food ingredient evaluation and characterization
  • Taste panel evaluations
  • Food product demonstrations
  • Project management
  • Literature reviews
  • Rental of space and equipment
  • Reverse engineering of food products
  • Nutrition facts panel generation
  • Technical training/interactive workshops
  • Sample analysis and testing
  • Equipment demonstrations
Sectors of application
  • Agriculture, animal science and food
  • Education
  • Manufacturing and processing
Specialized labEquipmentFunction
Research KitchenFreeze Dryer 
 Rational combi oven 
 Meat grinder 
 Pasta extruder 
 Marble confectioners’ surface 
 Ice cream machine 
 Vacuum sealer 
 Food dehydrator 
 Thermocirculator (sous-vide) 
 Vacuum tumbler 
 Dough sheeter 
Retail Meat LaboratoryVacuum stuffer 
 Smokehouse 
 Bandsaw 
 Silent cutter/bowl chopper 
 Vemag stuffer 
 Vacuum tumbler 
 Fermentation chambersFor fermented meat products
Cheese LabRaw milk receiving equipment 
 Cheese vatUp to 200 L