ABOUT FIRSt
FIRSt helps food and beverage businesses in Ontario grow profitably through product innovation. FIRSt accelerates new food and beverage ideas “from concept to commercialization”, by offering industry access to strategic and technical resources, state of the art culinary research facilities, and high-value networking opportunities.
Contact FIRSt
215 King St. East, 4th, Toronto, ON M5A 1J9
Services offered in: English and French
Request Interactive Visit: http://interactivevisits.ca
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RESEARCH AND INNOVATION EXPERTISE
EXPERTISE
- Food science
- Product development and optimization
- Regulatory and labeling
- Nutritional analysis
- Consumer sensory research and focus groups
- Shelf-life testing and validation
Previous Research Projects:
Fields of projects:
- Food
- Beverage
- Alcoholic Beverages
- New Product Development
- Food Processing
- Flavour Development
- Food Safety
- Consumer Testing and Market Intelligence
TECHNOLOGY SECTORS
- Agriculture
- Food Innovation
EQUIPMENT AND LABS
| Equipment | Function |
|---|---|
| A 4000 square foot facility with a large kitchen filled with typical kitchen and factory-scale processing equipment (ovens, mixers, scales, kettles, blenders, etc.) | Applied research and testing |
| Private secured testing kitchen within facility | Proprietary research and development |
| State-of-the-art quantitative sensory testing facility | Consumer sensory evaluation |
| Sensory evaluation software | Consumer sensory evaluation |
| Beverage carbonators | Product development |
| Homogenizer / emulsifier | Product development |
| Mixers (Hobart, Robotcoupe) | Product development |
| Food dehydrator | Product development |
| Freeze drier | Product development |
| Steam kettles (scrape-surface, etc.) | Product development |
| Brew / steeping kettle | Product development |
| Ice cream machine | Product development |
| Blast chiller / freezer | Product development |
| Tabletop convection burners | Product development |
| Combi oven | Product development |
| Accelerated shelf life chambers | Product testing |
| ESHA Genesis nutritional database software | Product testing |
| Quality measurement tools including: Moisture meter, pH meter, Viscometer, Colorimeter, Chromameter, Refractometers, Water Activity Meters, etc. | Product testing |
| Metal detector | Product testing |