On Tuesday the 24 January, the Vice-Chancellor opened The Medway Food Innovation Centre (MFIC). The centre aims to strengthen the UK food and drink sector by offering state-of-the-art facilities, some of which are unique to the UK.
It is also the home of Growing Kent & Medway’s plant-based Food Accelerator Programme, which offers a full business and technical innovation support service to local plant-based food & drink producer/entrepreneurs.
NRI’s Valerie Pondaven, Food Accelerator Programme manager said,
We don’t want to keep all this expertise just within the university, we want to engage with local businesses. At the MFIC we have food grade laboratories with state-of-the-art equipment where businesses can explore food and drink production techniques with our experts. The hope is that the entrepreneurs will be more inclined to try new things and purchase their own equipment. The University’s food scientists and academics are on hand to give practical help to business owners to solve challenges. Kent is the garden of England so we are looking at horticulture, agriculture – all the wonderful plant-based food that is readily available here.
Showcasing their produce at the MFIC opening will be local food and drink producers:
- Born Maverick - working on the extraction of seaweed proteins
- Pretty Pink Potato - producer of vegan meringue. They will bring mini pots of pavlova samples with whipped plant cream.
- Zambur Ferments – producing fermented drinks and raw food like kimchi and kombucha
NRI’s Dr Parag Acharya, a Senior Fellow in Food Innovation said:
With a strong focus on food research, climate-smart innovation, training, and knowledge exchange, MFIC is a place where the future of food is realised through developing transformative technologies and understanding the science behind them, which enables us to successfully bridge the gap between the science and application.
The research and innovation focus areas of MFIC are:
- Alternative protein-based food
- Novel food processing
- Flavour, texture, and sensory research
- Food safety and nutrition
- Fresh produce storage and sustainable packaging
These new facilities are mainly funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) as part of their ‘Expanding Excellence in England (E3)’ programme, which supports NRI’s Food and Nutrition Security Initiative (FaNSI). In addition to the facilities and with an E3 investment of £7.5 million, NRI has appointed more than 20 researchers and developed local and international collaborations under FaNSI. Amongst these new collaborations is the £18 million ‘Growing Kent and Medway (GKM)’ led by NIAB, which supports local economic development through technology-driven horticulture, fresh produce packaging, food and drink processing and its supply chains. MFIC is also part of the GKM skill hub for training student cohorts and disadvantaged members of the local community to develop industry-focused skills and technical know-how for better employability, thereby promoting inclusive economic growth.
