The Food Industries Center (FIC) at The Ohio State University has three distinct pilot plants and a state-of-the-art sensory evaluation testing service that are available for new product development, process evaluation, and research. The pilot plants meet safety and sanitation needs, and offer up-to-date equipment that is used to demonstrate cutting-edge technology. Equipment mobility permits rearrangement to desired product flow patterns. In addition, the designers were cognizant of the need to provide capabilities to simulate new processing techniques and methods as they were being developed. As a result, the pilot plants can be utilized one day as a teaching and demonstration area, utilizing current processing technologies and procedures, and the next day, with minor modifications, can function as a research facility probing new concepts and procedures. The sensory facility can be utilized in researching consumer food and beverage products. Responses are collected via computerized software that provides timely results.
Created: 2007-03-13, Updated: 2008-12-16
