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Conestoga Food Research & Innovation Lab

Conestoga Food Research & Innovation Lab

As an applied food research lab, the Conestoga Food Research & Innovation Lab (CFRIL) meets the needs of industry through education, training, research, and technical expertise. Our advanced facilities are essential in providing solutions for small, medium, and large businesses in the food and culinary sector. Our focus is to work with partners to provide innovative solutions and support throughout the product development cycle, including formula development, shelf-life studies, packaging testing, and scale-up using our pilot plant equipment. 

Partner intake form

Facilities and services

Inspire innovation

With access to culinary facilities, faculty and support staff, CFRIL can support your innovation strategy by providing a focused, on- or off-site innovation and ideation session to:

  • Access our research and teaching facilities and equipment
  • Collaborate with our chefs on product line extensions or new product ideas
  • Test new product ideas using our equipment 

Our packaging faculty can support your next packaging innovation with prototyping equipment and extensive laboratory analysis:

  • Collaborate with faculty on new packaging ideas
  • Prototype packaging concepts

Our partners can also access Bloom, Conestoga's full-service restaurant at the Waterloo campus, which boasts a state-of-the-art culinary skills lab.

Virtual tour

Take a virtual tour of our facility located at our Cambridge - Fountain Street campus.

Take the tour

CFRIL impact

ketchup in a dish

Real-time and accelerated shelf-life study

Good Food for Good partnered with CFRIL to provide data to inform decision-making regarding product shelf-life and investigate alternative sustainable packaging for their ketchup. 
A food service worker using a machine

Use of near-infrared spectroscopy and rapid visco analysis

Dawn Foods has been a global bakery ingredients leader for over a century. They understand that in some instances, quality tests may take longer than desired, leading to delays in receiving feedback from the quality assurance team to the production floor.
VG Meats logo

Digital simulations for meat plant safety training

The Virtual & Augmented Reality Lab and the Conestoga Food Research & Innovation Lab worked with VG Meats to create digital simulations for meat plant safety training.

Our team

Nicole Detlor

Nicole Detlor, M.Sc., P.Eng.

Director, Conestoga Food Research & Innovation Lab

Sujit Abraham headshot

Sujit Abraham 

Research associate

By the numbers (2022) 

Square feet of pilot plant space
In funded projects
Industry partners engaged over 5 years

Contact us

See how the Conestoga Food Research & Innovation Lab can help you access faculty expertise, student employees, and the college's innovative lab spaces and equipment.

850 Fountain Street South

Cambridge, Ontario N3H 0A8, Canada

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