A 140m² extension to the FoodSouth Building, located at Lincoln University, was officially opened by FoodSouth Chair Alan Malcolmson at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on-site on Wednesday 17 August.
The addition features a new low-care room, which will enable FoodSouth to increase its food-processing capability to process a wider range of raw materials into high-value ingredients.
FoodSouth CEO John Morgan further commented: “The new space also includes an additional high-care foodsafe processing room, bringing our total number of rooms available for client scale-up and product development to five.
“The larger space will enable our team to easily move FoodSouth’s extensive range of processing equipment to customise each room for client production needs.”
FoodSouth delivers product scale-up support for food and beverage companies from its premises on the Lincoln University campus, and is the South Island hub of the New Zealand Food Innovation Network (NZFIN), a government-funded national network of complementary facilities enabling the growth and development of food and beverage businesses in Aotearoa.
NZFIN provides advice, expertise, equipment and connections for food and beverage businesses to help them innovate, commercialise, scale-up and succeed domestically and internationally.
The five nationwide NZFIN hubs, including the Lincoln-based FoodSouth facility, offer state-of-the-art food processing technologies, as well as staff with a broad range of expertise, from technical skills to compliance, manufacturing and business development capabilities.
During its seven years of operation, FoodSouth has worked with a wide variety of clients to help them successfully develop new products, including Cookie Time’s tea cookies for Japan, Harraway’s Oat Bites, Leaft Foods’ plant protein, Otis Oat Milk and Westland’s UHT cream for China.
Lincoln University Vice-Chancellor Professor Grant Edwards said that hosting the FoodSouth facility on the Lincoln University campus is a key driver for the University, with its strategic focus on developing meaningful partnerships to advance its reputation as a world-class research and teaching precinct.
“Since much of our research in the food and beverage sector is directed towards innovation, it is hugely beneficial to have FoodSouth’s expertise, knowledge and leading-edge tools on-site to connect our students and researchers with industry.”
Professor Edwards added that the services and expertise provided by FoodSouth closely align with the highly-subscribed food, wine and beer study programmes offered by Lincoln University.
“Our partnership and co-location with FoodSouth has facilitated many industry-led student projects and collaborations over the years, and we are committed to building on this valuable relationship.”
