Gluten free food producers Genius Foods has entered into a partnership with a special department of Queen Margaret University.
The Scottish Centre for Food Development and Innovation at the university has its own food science lab, and the Edinburgh company now operate from there to develop new products. The centre has a fully-equipped sensory suite which allows appearance, aroma, texture and flavour of food and drink to be accurately measured. They use focus groups and test panels to help them out on a regular basis.
Dr Julien Lonchamp from QMU’s Scottish Centre for Food Development and Innovation, said: “We’re very pleased to be providing specialist research and development facilities and training for Genius Foods. The specific combination of sensory and analytical facilities that we offer at QMU was previously unavailable elsewhere in Scotland, so research work was often sent to England or Northern Ireland instead.
“Through practical innovation support and creative business solutions, QMU is continuing to help leading food and drink businesses, like Genius Foods, with new and innovative product development.”
Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne, Founder of Genius, added: “The partnership with Queen Margaret University demonstrates our ongoing commitment to producing market-leading gluten free bakery products. While an element of our R&D will remain in-house, we are working in partnership with the Scottish Centre for Food Development and Innovation, which will enable us to have an even deeper understanding of the behaviour of our core ingredients. We look forward to working with QMU to take our recipes and product range to the next level.”
The Scottish Centre for Food Development & Innovation is enhancing Scotland’s position as a leader in food and drink innovation in Europe and supporting access to the global market for healthy and functional food. Facilities include a dedicated chemistry laboratory and a technology room for industry to test new technology.
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