Who we are

What We Do

The OSU Food Innovation Center (FIC) is a nationally recognized resource dedicated to assisting food and beverage companies develop, reformulate, and improve food products for the market. We specialize in designing and developing high-quality, safe food products that meet consumer demand, focusing on delicious taste, clean ingredients, wholesome nutrition, process requirements, and regulatory standards.

Our team of food science professionals brings a wealth of diverse industry experience, ready to help you turn ideas into innovation. Our goal is to inspire and accelerate collaboration in a food innovation setting, helping you augment your available R&D resources and stay ahead in a competitive market.

Let's work together to bring your innovative ideas to life! We will tailor a project scope of work selecting from culinary science, food and sensory science, and food safety to help support your initiative.

With clients ranging from entrepreneurs to multi-brand industry leaders, the FIC provides the right services at any point in the food product development cycle for new products and innovations.

Experiment Station

The FIC is one of fourteen Experiment Station for Oregon State University College of Agriculture Sciences and closely tied to the world-renown Oregon State University Food Science,Technology and Sustainability Department, providing skilled and professional resources in consumer research & sensory analysis, food safety, product formulation, pilot plant production, and applied research. Research work is also conducted to develop innovative traceability technologies and support and address industry food safety challenges. 

Facilities

The innovation center is housed in our 33,000 sq ft building in Northwest Portland, Oregon. Our facility includes research kitchens and laboratories, workshop and classroom spaces, modern sensory panelist booths, private focus group rooms, customizable pilot processing facility, analytical biosafety labs.

Services

Dive into our resources or connect with our expert team today to discover how our cutting-edge facilities and tailored support can help you innovate, grow, and lead in your industry.

• Culinary & Concept Development

• Product & Process Development

• Sensory Science & Market Research

• Food Safety & Quality Management

Who We Serve

Professional Food & Beverage Development Support

Welcome to the Food Innovation Center (FIC), where we bring together culinary and food science expertise and resources to support food brands, entrepreneurs, ingredient companies, agriculture, and foodservice operators in the Northwest.

Clients

We take Intellectual Property protection seriously and don’t disclose our working relationships without consent from our clients. The following is a small selection of clients we’ve worked with to bring products to market that wanted to highlight our collaboration.

 See List of clients

Brands/Manufacturers

At FIC, we bring a wealth of experience across grocery, food service, and wholesale channels to lead the product development cycle for food brands and manufacturers. From sparking innovation and ideation to culinary applications and concepting, sensory and market research validation, benchtop development, and production simulation, we cover it all. We also manage ingredient sourcing, nutritional labeling, shelf-life optimization, pilot production, food safety, quality management, and much more. Think of FIC as your very own innovation department or as a seasoned extension of your R&D team, tailored to your unique service needs.

Entrepreneurs

The FIC is dedicated to championing food entrepreneurs in the Northwest, helping them formulate and scale-up new food innovations that meet consumer demand. With decades of experience, we accelerate food innovators to market through benchtop formulation, regulation, and food safety. The FIC offers broad, hard-to-find food science resources for entrepreneurs.

Ingredient Companies

When introducing a new or existing ingredient to the market, consider the FIC for application testing and technical marketing insights. Our creative team can push the boundaries to help find new product applications for your key ingredient to inspire and excite your customer. We understand how food developers make their ingredient choices and can help demonstrate your ingredient through concept development, application studies, trade show sampling and assistance, engaging customer meetings, and webinars or workshops for your target audience.

Agriculture: Farming & Commodity Boards

With deep ties to Oregon and Northwest agriculture, the FIC connects crop producers, processors, and commodity marketers to grocery, foodservice, and ingredient wholesale channel decision-makers. We have a long history of creating innovative product applications, hands-on workshops, and trade assistance for the agriculture industry. Also, explore our Food Safety team’s training and resources to help processors understand and apply food safety under the Food Safety Modernization Act. As part of the Oregon State University College of Agricultural Sciences Experimental community, supporting agriculture is our calling.

Researchers

The FIC Team can support experimentation or validation of crop and ingredient research with deep understanding of experimental design and application testing. We can help apply our knowledge of consumer demands and food formulator’s products and ingredient needs.

Food Service

FIC’s culinary expertise is a unique resource for food service operators throughout the Northwest. Our team supports recipe and concept development, menu development, and scale-up of your unique menu items for wholesale or grocery expansion.