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How we help industry in process engineering innovation

We help companies:

  • optimise and design processes for microbial inactivation, enzyme activation or inactivation and modification or restructuring of protein, fats and starch through scientific experimentation, multiphysics modelling and validation
  • manufacture high-value ingredients by extraction and enrichment from complex product waste streams using separation science
  • incorporate, stabilise and enhance efficacy of bioactives in food products while ensuring consumer acceptability
  • design systems for pest disinfestation and disease control in significant horticultural products using novel technologies such as microwave, ultrasound and high pressure processing as chemical free alternatives to current quarantine measures
  • undertake product life cycle assessments to understand resource utilisation, raw material flow and transformation along the food supply chain to find more sustainable and wholesome ways of producing food to feed the world.

Our scientists have the world class food process engineering expertise and facilities necessary to support product and process development in:

We are world leaders in new food technologies such as high pressure processing.

  • meat
  • dairy
  • grains
  • beverages
  • fruit and vegetables
  • eggs
  • pasta
  • bioactive ingredients.

Companies can be certain that their work with us is totally confidential.

Process engineering case study: Murray Goulburn Cooperative

Twenty years ago, Murray Goulburn Co-operative Ltd was producing about 35,000 tonnes of cheese per year. However, they were using only 10–15 per cent of the residual whey, mainly as pig feed.

Murray Goulburn worked with CSIRO's scientists to develop a chromatographic system that has allowed the company to treble its cheese production each year. Even better, they commercialised protein ingredients from the bi-product streams and are now able to use 90 per cent of the whey in valuable manufactured products such as the billion dollar sports foods and beverages and meal replacement markets in North America.

Our key process engineering resources available to industry

Key CSIRO resources available for industry include:

  • our $50m world-class food manufacturing pilot plant in Werribee, Victoria, around 3000 m2 in size with a range of conventional and innovative processing technologies and equipment and the joint Queensland Government/CSIRO food pilot plant in Brisbane, Queensland
  • scientific and engineering staff with expertise in process development, drying, thermal processing, separation, extrusion, postharvest technology, innovative technology (high pressure processing, ultrasound, microwave and pulse electric field) and process and systems modelling
  • supporting expertise in sensory evaluation, chemical analyses, food safety assurance, nutrition assessments, clinical trials and more.

Welcome to CSIRO's food innovation centre

Welcome to CSIRO's food innovation centre

[Music plays and CSIRO logo and text appears: Welcome to CSIRO’s food innovation centre]

[Images flash through of people selecting food from fridges and shelves in a supermarket]

Narrator: Consumer demand for healthy, convenient, new and safe food products is rising and market growth in the Asian region is booming.

More than ever manufacturing innovation is critical for the Australian food industry to capture these opportunities and be globally competitive.

[Image changes to show the outside of the CSIRO Food Innovation Centre Melbourne and then image changes to show employees looking at food samples of cheese and then the camera zooms in on a sample of cheese]

At our Food Innovation Centre we work with the food and beverage manufacturing industry to meet these opportunities and add value to their business.

[Images flash through of an employee looking at a sample, operating a computer, the computer screen, a heat shrink bag, a tube being filled with white liquid, an employee looking at a computer screen, the computer screen display, an employee filling a tube with bottles of juice and placing the tube inside a machine, a computer screen display and an employee emptying the tube]

We help companies innovate by creating next generation value added food products and ingredients, improving operating efficiencies, licensing ready to go technologies, making industry connections and adopting and developing new technologies and applications for safer, fresher, healthier and sustainably produced foods and more.

[Image changes to show an employee climbing up some stairs carrying a bag of maize polenta and then the camera shows employees watching a machine in use and then the camera zooms in on their faces]

In the last few years we’ve helped our clients create hundreds of millions of dollars in new food product and ingredient sales locally and in export markets.

[Image changes to show an employee operating the touch screen on a machine and then the image changes to show a machine with lots of tubes and the camera pans up the machine to the top]

This includes more than 25 new products in the retail market nationally.

[Image changes to show an employee operating a machine and then images flash through of different manufacturing machinery]

Companies are invited to use our manufacturing equipment to develop and launch new products into the market or collaborate with us strategically on breakthrough technologies.

[Image changes to show an outside view of the CSIRO facility in Brisbane and text appears: Brisbane]

[Image changes to show employees working with packaged meat and then the camera zooms in on a female writing on a clipboard, employees inspecting the meat, employees cutting a sample from the meat and an employee putting meat inside a machine]

Through our facilities in Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney we have the most significant and extensive food innovation expertise available in Australia.

[Images flash through of an employee operating a machine]

Our pilot plants are unique facilities with a mix of conventional and emerging technologies supported by world class science.

[Image changes to show three female employees walking down a corridor and text appears: Sydney]

[Images flash through of an employee pouring juice, trying a sample, a computer screen display and a female employee operating machinery]

Our expertise in sensory, flavour, consumer science and food choices is unique helping companies develop new or redefine their existing products.  We help industry manage their food safety and product shelf life and meet food safety regulations in export markets.

[Image changes to show three employees inspecting a dough sample and then the camera zooms in on an employee pulling a sample from the dough and tasting it]

We’re also helping Australian food companies meet the rapidly growing demand in Asia for high value products.

[Image changes to show an employee operating a computer with two display screens and then the camera zooms in on one of the screen displays]

Our researchers help companies reformulate to reduce salt, sugar and fat and develop fortified products with functional health benefits while still meeting the taste preferences of consumers.

[Image changes to show an outside view of the CSIRO in Adelaide and then the image changes to show a male walking through the door and speaking to the receptionist and then the camera zooms in on the paper he is writing on]

We also work with manufacturers to substantiate food and ingredient health claims with expertise in lab scale analysis through to human nutrition trials.

[Images flash through of two people at computers, a person lying down, a computer screen display, a female pouring liquid and a female operating a computer and then the camera zooms in on the liquid being poured and the female operating the computer screen]

Whether you’re a small company with a novel idea or a large one looking to outsource key R and D services companies benefit every day from partnering with CSIRO.

[Camera zooms in on the computer screen and then the camera zooms in on the female employee]

It all starts with a conversation.

[Image changes and CSIRO logo and text appears: Big ideas start here, csiro.au/on]

Find out how CSIRO's food innovation centre helps food and ingredient manufacturers

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