Food Innovation & Research Studio
(FIRSt)

George Brown College

Toronto, ON

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

gbcfirst.ca

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

  1. Food science
  2. Product development and optimization
  3. Regulatory and labeling
  4. Nutritional analysis
  5. Consumer sensory research and focus groups
  6. 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

  1. Agriculture
  2. 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