NoWFOOD

Nowfood signage on building Nowfood signage on building

NoWFOOD offers a comprehensive package of support helping to nurture  young food businesses as well as provide research and support for established food and drink manufacturers.

Laboratory Services

NoWFOOD staff are able to conduct a wide range of routine testing including food chemical analysis, nutritional analysis, rheology, microbiology and shelf-life testing.

Tests

Tests can provide an understanding of the physical and chemical properties of food and drink products and are an important part of regulatory compliance, quality assurance and product development.

Tests offered include:

  • Food chemistry and analysis
  • Food microbiology and shelf-life evaluation
  • Food rheology texture and structure
  • Nanotechnology, allergens, contaminants and authenticity

Microbial / shelf life

Important for your customers’ safety. We offer the UKAS accredited analysis you need to determine your products Best Before/Use by Date. With expert advice on how you can potentially extend/improve your shelf life.

Nutritional analysis

Mandatory information required by Regulation N.1169/2011. We offer UKAS accredited analysis ensuring your product’s meet the mandatory information needed. Our expert food scientists are on hand to help you with advice.

Chemical analysis

Our expert food scientists can help you understand your product’s chemical properties, from Vitamins to minerals to potential contaminates.

Textural analysis

Understand the textural properties of your product and get help with any product redesign that may affect the organoleptic properties.

Access to academia

NoWFOOD is located at the University of Chester's main campus and as such has close ties with the Faculties on site, offering you access to the most cutting-edge research and development.

We can also support bespoke testing or other analytical projects for small, medium or larger companies.

Production Kitchen and Incubation

Production kitchen

The modern industrial kitchen facilities provide a range of professional kitchen equipment including:

  • Automatic filling and sealing machines
  • Firex cookers
  • Automatic tray sealer
  • Blast chiller/freezer
  • Walk in fridge & freezer
  • Double jacket boiling pans
  • Gas hobs
  • Combination ovens
  • Dough mixers

The kitchens are ideal for SME’s to hire out who are looking to scale-up production or develop new ideas but are not yet at the stage of making an investment in their own facilities.

Companies can also take advantage of advice and support provided by our experienced team of Food and Business Development professionals.

Incubator units

Many producers start their business working from home kitchens which can make expansion difficult. To overcome this, NoWFOOD has fully equipped individual kitchen units for producers to occupy as commercial occupants in order to develop their business on-site utilising the facilities and technical support on offer to upscale production.

The Centre also has meeting rooms and video conferencing, which are all available to NoWFOOD commercial businesses.

Sensory Analysis

Sensory suite and lab

Our sensory suite offers an opportunity to obtain feedback on the look and taste of food and drink products and it can provide comparisons with other similar products in the marketplace.

Bronze package

Focus group

A sensory panel leader will lead a discussion of 10-15 consumers specifically selected using client’s recruitment criteria. Each focus group will be tailored to what the client would like to explore. Some topics include: concept testing, benchmarking, product development, pricing structure and branding.

Silver package

Consumer testing

Up to 100 panellists representing your specific target market will evaluate your product against market competitors or exploring consumer response to recipe changes.

Gold package

Trained sensory panel

The panel, as a group will score your product on different attributes giving quantitative results. With up to 15 highly trained and specialist panellists who will evaluate appearance, aroma, flavour, texture and aftertaste of the product(s).

The process can be tailor-made, from the analysis of simple consumer questionnaires to utilising an expert panel of taste-testers to provide descriptions of the taste, flavour and texture of products. This bespoke testing provides data and analysis that can help with marketing and ultimately determine the potential success of a product in the market.

NoWFOOD has the potential to add value to any food or drink producer by offering:

  • Hands-on specialist technical and analytical support
  • Access to large production kitchen
  • Incubation space for start-ups
  • Valuable sensory consumer feedback

Based at the University of Chester, NoWFOOD is a centre of excellence supporting food businesses from product development to nutritional testing and market feedback.

The team can help with exploring new markets, developing new product ideas, solving production problems, accessing training and using our excellent sensory suite to gain first-hand customer feedback and market insight.

Businesses working with NoWFOOD

We are fortunate to work with some excellent local and national businesses producing and/or testing vibrant and highly professional offerings at our NoWFOOD Centre.

  • Sam Joseph Ltd