Guelph Food Innovation Centre - GFIC
Leaders in Food Science and Innovation
The Guelph Food Innovation Centre (GFIC) solves business challenges through the science of food. As your innovation ally, we provide customized solutions that help food businesses—from startups to established brands—develop, validate, and scale their ideas. GFIC is located at the University of Guelph within the Department of Food Science, which is ranked #1 in Canada and 18th worldwide for food science and technology. GFIC offers a one-of-a-kind combination of scientific expertise, pilot plant facilities, and analytical services to bring your innovations to market faster.
Services
GFIC helps food and beverage companies bring products to market with services in product development, collaborative research, pilot scale-up, and analytical testing. From idea to consumer-ready product, our team provides the tools, expertise, and support you need to succeed.
Product Development
Turn your food or beverage idea into a shelf-ready product. From concept to formulation to scale-up, we help you create innovative products that stand out in the market.
Collaborative Research
Through GFIC, you can collaborate with world-renowned faculty and advanced research capacity to gain the expertise, data, and innovation to support your project needs.
Pilot Scale-Up
GFIC’s pilot-scale facilities give you the tools, expertise, and flexibility to accelerate your path to market. Test, validate, and scale your product with confidence at every stage.
Shelf Life Testing and Challenge Studies
Discover how your product performs over time with tailored shelf-life and challenge studies—backed by science to ensure safety, quality, and consumer appeal.
Analytical Testing
Gain precise, science-backed insights into your product with GFIC’s advanced analytical testing services, whether you want to optimize your formulation, meet regulatory compliance, and more.
Nutritional Fact Tables
Ensure your product meets Canadian labelling standards with GFIC’s calculated or analytical Nutrition Facts Table (NFT) services. We deliver fast, accurate NFT results you can trust.
Areas of Expertise
GFIC is part of an ecosystem specialized in the advancement of food research and technology. This network of facilities and expertise enables us to deliver customized solutions tailored to your product and process development requirements.
Dairy Processing
Bring your dairy innovations to life with GFIC’s expert support in product development, pilot-scale production, and process optimization. Our OMAFA-certified dairy pilot plant and experienced team help you move from concept to market-ready formulations with confidence and compliance.
Ice Cream and Frozen Desserts
Partner with our expert innovation team to transform ideas into shelf-ready frozen products. Using scientific, consumer, and industry insights, we support every stage, from concept to commercial production.
Extrusion
GFIC offers access to advanced extrusion technology for research and product development. Our facilities support a wide range of extrusion applications, from concept validation to pilot-scale trials.
Spray Drying
We offer both lab- and pilot-scale spray drying to support product evaluations and the development of dried prototypes. With specialized equipment and expert guidance, we help transform concepts into reliable, scalable results.
Functional/Alcoholic Beverages
Transform your beverage ideas into high-performing, commercially viable products with support from GFIC’s expert formulation and pilot-scale teams. Explore how we help brands craft functional and alcoholic drinks that deliver exceptional flavour, stability, and commercial readiness.
Hot Fill Processing
Bring your shelf-stable beverages, sauces, and condiments to life with GFIC’s pilot-scale hot fill processing. Our facility helps you develop, test, and refine products under real production conditions.
Powdered Wellness Products
Develop high-quality wellness powders with confidence. GFIC provides support in formulating, testing, and refining powdered products. Explore how our team supports innovation every step of the way.
Ingredient Validation
Validate your ingredient’s potential with science-backed testing and documentation. We’ll help you prove its stability, safety, and functionality, preparing it for market success.
Client Testimonials
GFIC has helped with getting my products tested for various items to ensure the products were safe for consumption, as well as shelf stable. Having these tests completed by a reputable organization allows us to feel confident that our products are indeed safe.
Since collaborating with GFIC in 2023, their team was able to elevate Sunday Funday's mimosa recipe. Their lead scientist, Derek along with his team reviewed our current profile and were able to rebuild this based on our specific requirements and our market research. This allowed us to elevate our current recipe, sharpen the taste and ultimately succeed at entering LCBO's incubator program.
Partnering with GFIC was an excellent experience for our team. Their expertise and facilities gave us the opportunity to generate shareable data for a compelling showcase study — something not possible in our confidential customer deployments — and to demonstrate the value of BioTags® in evaluating sanitation protocols and optimizing clean break processes. This collaboration has been instrumental in accelerating the adoption of our solution in the dairy sector and beyond.
GFIC accomplished everything I needed in regards to my vision of creating a drink. From finding the right flavors, sweetness and colors, to nailing down the consistency, solubility and the exact process that I would be using to produce my drinks on a large scale. They were able to solve all the problems encountered during the process and connect me with suppliers for all my ingredients. Their knowledge, expertise, and professionalism is highly commendable and I could not have ended up in better hands than the GFIC.
The team at GFIC has been key every step of the way in bringing my signature artisan ice cream recipes from kitchen to commercial production. Their expertise in formulation, conversion, and validation has ensured my unique flavours stay true to their roots while scaling for market. As research and development continues, I’m confident GFIC will deliver a product that reflects our shared passion for quality and creativity. Their enthusiasm and support have been invaluable. With GFIC, it’s more than ice cream—it’s a collaboration built on flavour and trust.
GFIC has been fundamental in the creation of our drinks. GFIC has worked in conjunction with Green Coffee Inc. to develop a totally natural Energy Drink. For the first time, Canadian customers can benefit from consuming Xero™ - an energy drink full of antioxidants and with a safe content of naturally occurring chlorogenic acid. All the ingredients are natural extractions of fruits and vegetables. GFIC identified the best flavour for the Canadian market. Our startup continues to explore in conjunction with GFIC, improvements and variations of Xero™.
Extension Courses
Looking to expand your skills in food production? At GFIC, we offer hands-on extension courses in beer brewing, cheese making, and ice cream technology—perfect for professionals, hobbyists, and industry partners alike. Explore our upcoming courses and register today to elevate your craft.
