Frequently Asked Questions
About Foodlab
Foodlab is a food product and technology development center located in Yakum, Israel. Foodlab combines food science, culinary development, process engineering and a benchtop application laboratory to help food companies, entrepreneurs and startups turn product concepts into commercially viable products and scalable production processes.
Foodlab works from early concept and formulation through laboratory trials, process development, packaging, shelf-life work and support for pilot and industrial scale-up.
Foodlab is located at the Greenwork campus in Yakum, on Israel’s central coast, north of Tel Aviv. The Foodlab facility includes an application laboratory, an application kitchen, analytical equipment, workstations for visiting teams and a conference room.
Foodlab was founded by Gil de Picciotto and Yoel Benesh.
Gil de Picciotto is a chef and food product developer with extensive experience developing food products and technologies for companies in Israel and international markets.
Yoel Benesh founded Olivia, an Israeli manufacturer of sauces and spreads, and later served in a senior research and development role following Olivia’s acquisition by Tnuva.
Foodlab works with established food manufacturers, multinational companies, ingredient and technology companies, early-stage startups, entrepreneurs and research teams.
Projects range from focused laboratory trials and formulation work to complete product-development programs involving process design, packaging, shelf life and industrial scale-up.
Foodlab’s publicly presented track record includes work associated with companies and brands such as KIND, Olivia, Sunfrost, Dorot, InnovoPro, Ripple, Upland Snacks, Mama Of, Meir Beigel and Zieta.
Representative projects have included snack and bar development, ingredient applications, frozen and fresh products, sauces, processing technologies and shelf-life solutions.
For further examples, visit Foodlab’s Track Record page.
PRODUCT AND TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT
Foodlab’s core services include:
• New food product development.
• Food technology and process development.
• Rapid formulation and benchtop prototyping.
• Packaging and shelf-life support.
• Pilot and industrial scale-up support.
• Thermal-processing studies.
• Laboratory and analytical work.
• Guided access to selected Foodlab facilities and equipment.
• Professional education through Foodlab Academy.
Foodlab is also developing physics-based food-process simulation capabilities that can support process understanding, experimental planning and scale-up.
A Foodlab development project normally starts with a clear written brief. The brief defines the product concept, target consumer, nutritional objectives, intended market, target price, raw materials, regulatory constraints, processing requirements, packaging and expected shelf life.
Foodlab then develops and evaluates benchtop prototypes, records relevant process and product parameters, and reviews the results with the client. The formulation and process are refined through structured iterations.
When the laboratory result meets the agreed objectives, Foodlab supports transfer to pilot or industrial production. The client will receive a “product file” that includes all necessary data required for industrial scale up. The file includes raw-material specifications, process parameters, production instructions, trial support, packaging recommendations and shelf-life work.
A useful project brief should include:
- The proposed product and consumer use.
- The intended country or market.
- Target nutritional values and claims.
- Ingredient restrictions and allergen requirements.
- Target price and expected pack size.
- Required storage conditions and shelf life.
- Available manufacturing equipment.
- Estimated production volume.
- Reference products or desired sensory characteristics.
- Any existing formulas, trials or technical data.
Foodlab can help convert an early idea into a structured development brief when some of this information is not yet available.
Development time depends on the complexity of the product, availability of raw materials, number of required prototypes, processing technology, regulatory requirements, packaging and the required shelf-life evidence.
An initial benchtop prototype may often be developed within several weeks, but a commercially ready product usually requires additional formulation, process, packaging, scale-up and shelf-life work.
Foodlab defines the expected project stages and indicative schedule in the project proposal.
Yes. Foodlab helps convert laboratory formulations and processes into practical production instructions for pilot and industrial equipment. Our new product development work has scale up in mind from the first step.
Scale-up may include:
- Identification of critical process parameters.
- Selection of suitable industrial equipment.
- Adjustment of mixing, heating, cooling or residence times.
- Evaluation of shear, heat transfer, mass transfer and product geometry.
- Definition of process sequence and operating limits.
- Production-trial planning.
- On-site support during industrial trials.
- Review of changes in texture, yield, stability and shelf life after scale-up.
- Scale up simulations
Foodlab’s objective is not simply to reproduce the laboratory recipe at a larger weight. It is to preserve the relevant product properties while adapting the process to industrial equipment and operating conditions.
Yes. Foodlab works with clients in Israel and international markets.
Over the years, Foodlab has managed to create a methodology that supports new product development with remote teams. Depending on the project, work can include Team’s technical meetings, exchange of samples and raw materials, documented laboratory trials, video review of prototypes and support for production trials at the client’s or manufacturer’s facility.
The cost depends on the project scope, product complexity, number of prototypes, technologies involved, required analytical work, packaging and shelf-life studies, and the level of pilot or industrial scale-up support.
Foodlab first reviews the product brief and then proposes a suitable project structure, work plan, schedule and budget.
Contact Foodlab to discuss the project and receive an appropriate proposal.
Does Foodlab keep projects confidential?
Yes. Foodlab treats client formulations, processes, commercial plans and development results as confidential information.
Where required, Foodlab can enter into an appropriate confidentiality or non-disclosure agreement before detailed technical or commercial information is exchanged. The client owns the IP produced during the new product development process.
The client owns all formulations, process information, test results and intellectual property.
Contact Foodlab by email or telephone with a short description of the product, technology or problem you want to address.
A typical first step is an introductory discussion covering:
- The product or technical challenge.
- The intended market.
- The required development stage.
- Available information and previous work.
- Expected schedule.
Foodlab can then request a written brief and prepare a proposal covering the scope, deliverables, schedule and budget.
Proposed contact details
Email: office@foodlab.co.il
Telephone: +972-50-397-0305
THE FOODLAB LABORATORY
Foodlab’s application laboratory includes equipment covering a wide range of food-industry unit operations at benchtop and development scale.
Capabilities include:
- Milling and particle-size reduction.
- Mixing and high-pressure homogenization.
- Air, vacuum, spray and freeze drying.
- Pasteurization, UHT-related development work and sterilization studies.
- Fermentation.
- Single-screw extrusion.
- Separation and centrifugation.
- Vacuum processing.
- Cooling, freezing and blast freezing.
- Chocolate and confectionery processing.
- Ice-cream processing.
- Coating, baking and frying.
- Vacuum and modified-atmosphere packaging.
- Can and container sealing.
- Texture and physical-property analysis.
The exact equipment and permitted mode of use depend on the product, process, safety requirements and availability.
Foodlab provides access to the laboratory and analytical equipment for approved development projects. The Foodlab team will provide training on the equipment and will require the work to be done according to our SOPs and safety rules.
Foodlab offers flexible laboratory-access arrangements for approved food-development work in Yakum, Israel.
The appropriate arrangement depends on the duration of the project, equipment required, level of technical support and whether the work will be performed by Foodlab staff, jointly with the client or by trained client personnel under supervision.
Foodlab can support engagements ranging from a focused laboratory trial to a longer development program.
Yes. Foodlab provides both technical product-development services and access to an equipped food application laboratory.
Foodlab can:
- Develop the product for the client.
- Work jointly with the client’s technical team.
- Conduct focused process or analytical trials.
- Support a startup through a defined development stage.
- Help transfer the resulting formulation and process to pilot or industrial production.
The most appropriate engagement depends on the maturity of the concept and the amount of technical work already completed.
Foodlab has freeze-drying capability for food formulation, product-development and process-development trials at its laboratory in Yakum.
Depending on the project and Foodlab’s equipment-access policy, the freeze-drying trial may be carried out by Foodlab staff, jointly with the client or through supervised use by trained personnel.
Development-scale results can support scale-up planning, using Foodlab’s experience and freeze-drying simulation
Foodlab offers freeze drying services that support new product development and prototyping on small scale.
Foodlab’s benchtop laboratory is designed for small-scale development trials that represent food-industry unit operations.
Depending on the project, Foodlab can conduct:
- Pasteurization trials with product-temperature measurement.
- Extrusion trials using development-scale equipment.
- Fermentation trials using controlled incubation and bioreactor equipment.
Foodlab records relevant process variables and product responses so the results can be used for formulation decisions, process development and scale-up planning.
Trials may be carried out by Foodlab staff or jointly with the client, subject to the equipment-access and safety policy.
Foodlab conducts development-scale thermal-process studies using temperature probes and process calculations.
Depending on the product and process, the work may include:
- Heating and cooling profiles.
- Cold-point evaluation.
- Pasteurization-value calculations.
- Sterilization-value calculations.
- Comparison of process conditions.
- Assessment of process uniformity.
- Evaluation of product-quality effects.
- Support for scale-up and industrial trial planning.
These studies can support process design and subsequent industrial validation. The legal or regulatory validation of a commercial scheduled process may require additional industrial data, microbiological evidence or approval by an appropriately qualified process authority.
Yes. Foodlab develops fermentation processes for foods, ingredients and food-related microorganisms.
Foodlab’s fermentation facilities include controlled incubation equipment and a development-scale bioreactor.
Yes. Foodlab helps identify the mechanisms that limit a product’s shelf life and select formulation, process and packaging solutions that address those mechanisms.
Work may include:
- Water-activity measurement.
- Moisture migration.
- Lipid oxidation.
- Texture change.
- Colour or flavour deterioration.
- Microbial risk.
- Package barrier requirements.
- Headspace-gas composition.
- Vacuum or modified-atmosphere packaging
- Shelf life simulation
- Seal integrity.
- Accelerated and real-time storage studies.
Foodlab conducts a range of physical and analytical measurements relevant to food development and quality evaluation.
Available measurements include:
- pH.
- Water activity.
- Soluble solids or Brix.
- Dry-matter content.
- Viscosity.
- Bostwick consistency.
- Colour and spectrophotometric measurements.
- Optical microscopy with image capture.
- Centrifugation and physical-stability assessment.
- Instrumental texture analysis.
Foodlab also works with external laboratories when accredited chemical, microbiological, nutritional or regulatory testing is required.
Crunchiness and crispness can be evaluated objectively using a texture analyser, but the correct method depends on the product.
Foodlab can select an appropriate:
- Compression test.
- Puncture test.
- Three-point bending test.
- Shear test.
- Bulk-fracture test.
Measurements may include:
- Initial fracture force.
- Number of fracture events.
- Size of force drops.
- Work required to break the product.
- Hardness.
- Structural recovery.
- Acoustic response, where relevant.
The method should be selected for the specific product and correlated with sensory perception. A biscuit, extruded snack, coated nut and protein bar will not necessarily require the same test.
Instrumental measurement allows formulations, processes, production batches and storage samples to be compared more objectively than sensory assessment alone.
SHELF LIFE AND PACKAGING
Shelf-life failure normally results from one or more identifiable physical, chemical, microbiological or packaging mechanisms.
Examples include:
- Moisture uptake or moisture loss.
- Migration of moisture between product components.
- Lipid oxidation and rancidity.
- Aroma or flavour loss.
- Colour degradation.
- Microbial growth.
- Emulsion breakdown.
- Syneresis.
- Protein aggregation.
- Loss of crispness.
- Hardening or softening.
- Package-barrier failure.
- Seal leakage.
- Exposure to oxygen or light.
Foodlab first identifies the dominant failure mechanism and the conditions that accelerate it. It can then evaluate changes to formulation, processing, storage and packaging.
A shelf-life investigation normally begins by defining:
- The intended shelf life.
- Storage temperature.
- Distribution conditions.
- Packaging format.
- Product quality at the start of storage.
- The specific defect or failure observed.
- The point at which the product becomes unacceptable.
The first step would be shelf life simulation to provide clear picture of the processes at play.
Foodlab then selects appropriate measurements and storage conditions. These may include water activity, moisture, texture, oxidation markers, colour, flavour, package atmosphere, seal integrity and microbiology. We then perform shelf life studies, including accelerated shelf life study.
The investigation should establish the cause of deterioration and a recommended way to address it.
An accelerated shelf-life study exposes a product to carefully selected stress conditions to increase the rate of a defined deterioration mechanism.
Depending on the product, acceleration may involve:
- Elevated temperature.
- Controlled relative humidity.
- Increased oxygen exposure.
- Light exposure.
- Temperature cycling.
- Packaging with a selected barrier level.
Foodlab selects the study conditions, measurements, sampling intervals and failure endpoints according to the expected degradation mechanism.
Where the mechanism and experimental data support it, kinetic modelling can be used to estimate behaviour under normal storage conditions. Accelerated testing should complement rather than automatically replace real-time shelf-life testing, because excessive stress can create a different failure mechanism from the one occurring during normal storage.
Foodlab can design and manage a shelf-life study to establish how product quality and safety change under defined storage conditions.
The study may combine:
- Real-time storage.
- Accelerated storage.
- Instrumental analysis.
- Sensory assessment.
- Packaging evaluation.
- Microbiological testing through an appropriate laboratory.
- Kinetic or mechanistic modelling.
The final shelf-life recommendation depends on the product, packaging, manufacturing process, expected distribution conditions and the agreed quality and safety limits.
A reliable shelf-life conclusion normally requires product-specific evidence rather than a general estimate based only on the product category.
The correct packaging depends on what is causing the product to deteriorate.
For example:
- Oxygen-sensitive products may require low oxygen-transmission packaging.
- Moisture-sensitive products may require a low water-vapour transmission rate.
- Light-sensitive products may require opaque or UV-protective materials.
- Respiring fresh products may require controlled gas transfer.
- Fragile products may require mechanical protection.
- Modified-atmosphere products require suitable gas barriers and reliable seals.
Foodlab evaluates the product, expected storage conditions, package dimensions, headspace and failure mechanism before recommending materials or packaging technologies.
Foodlab has particular experience with vacuum and modified-atmosphere packaging, including fresh-cut applications.
Foodlab develops physics-based and numerical simulations to help explain and predict selected food processes before committing to extensive production trials or equipment investment.
Applications may include:
- Heating and cooling.
- Pasteurization and sterilization.
- Drying and moisture transfer.
- Freezing and thawing.
- Lipid oxidation.
- Fermentation kinetics.
- Shelf-life behaviour.
- Mixing or residence-time effects.
- Scale-up sensitivity.
A simulation can help identify sensitive parameters, compare process scenarios and design more informative experiments.
Simulation does not remove the need for laboratory and production trials. Its value is in improving understanding, narrowing the experimental range and reducing avoidable trial-and-error work.
Yes. Simulation can help identify how changes in equipment size, geometry, heat transfer, mixing, residence time and operating conditions may affect a product during scale-up.
Foodlab can use simulations together with laboratory measurements and pilot trials to:
- Identify critical variables.
- Evaluate likely process limits.
- Compare alternative operating conditions.
- Plan measurements for a production trial.
- Explain why a laboratory process behaves differently on industrial equipment.
- Reduce the number of poorly targeted trials.
A model should be calibrated and tested against relevant experimental or production data before it is used for quantitative decision-making.
Shelf-life and oxidation models can be used to compare scenarios, identify sensitive variables and improve the design of storage studies.
Depending on the problem, a model may consider:
- Product composition.
- Lipid composition.
- Water activity.
- Temperature.
- Initial oxygen concentration.
- Package oxygen transmission.
- Headspace volume.
- Package dimensions.
- Light exposure.
- Reaction-rate data.
- A defined sensory or analytical failure limit.
Reliable quantitative predictions normally require product-specific kinetic data and confirmation against storage results.
Foodlab uses modelling as a decision-support and experimental-design tool, not as an automatic substitute for real-time product evidence.
CATEGORY-SPECIFIC DEVELOPMENT
Developing a successful protein bar or snack requires formulation, processing, sensory quality, nutrition, packaging and shelf life to be developed together.
Foodlab develops bars and snacks from concept and benchtop formulation through process development, shelf-life work and preparation for pilot or industrial scale-up.
A change in protein, binder or moisture can affect texture, processability and shelf life, so these factors should not be optimized independently.
Ready-to-eat food development must combine sensory quality with an appropriate food-safety and shelf-life strategy.
Depending on the product, control may rely on one or more hurdles, including:
- Thermal processing.
- pH.
- Water activity.
- Refrigeration.
- Hygienic processing.
- Preservatives.
- Fermentation.
- Vacuum or modified-atmosphere packaging.
- Post-pack treatment.
- Defined storage and distribution controls.
Foodlab develops ready-to-eat products by considering formulation, process, packaging, microbiological risk and shelf life together.
Not every ready-to-eat product requires UHT or sterilization. The appropriate control system depends on the product, intended storage conditions, target microorganisms and applicable regulation.
Sauces, spreads and condiments can involve different technical challenges depending on the product.
These may include:
- Emulsion formation and stability.
- Suspension of particles.
- Viscosity and flow.
- Mouthfeel.
- Spreadability.
- Syneresis.
- pH and acidification.
- Thermal processing.
- Microbiological stability.
- Colour and flavour retention.
- Filling temperature.
- Package compatibility.
Foodlab develops sauces, spreads and condiments from concept through laboratory trials and process development to preparation for industrial scale-up.
The development approach differs between an oil-in-water emulsion, a particulate sauce, a refrigerated dip, an acidified condiment and an ambient-stable spread.
Yes. Foodlab has experience in fresh-cut products and modified-atmosphere packaging.
Development may include:
- Raw-material preparation.
- Washing and sanitation.
- Respiration and gas-balance considerations.
- Package-film selection.
- Headspace-gas composition.
- Temperature control.
- Water management.
- Browning or discolouration.
- Texture retention.
- Microbiological risk.
- Shelf-life testing.
The package atmosphere must be matched to the product’s respiration, temperature and food-safety requirements. Modified-atmosphere packaging should not be treated as a replacement for hygienic processing or appropriate refrigeration.
INNOVATION HUB AND FACILITY ACCESS
The Foodlab Innovation Hub provides food companies, startups and entrepreneurs with access to development facilities, technical support and an environment in which products and technologies can be tested.
Depending on the engagement, hosted teams may use laboratory equipment, analytical equipment, workstations, meeting facilities and Foodlab’s professional support.
The Innovation Hub can support a focused development stage or a longer project in which a team needs capabilities that are not available in its own facility.
Foodlab can host selected startups during an active product or technology development stage.
A hosted startup may benefit from:
- Access to relevant laboratory facilities.
- Technical support.
- Workstations and meeting facilities.
- Interaction with other food professionals and companies.
- A practical environment for iterative product development.
The scope, duration, equipment access, storage, confidentiality and commercial terms are agreed for each engagement.
FOODLAB ACADEMY
Foodlab Academy provides practical professional education for food technologists, food engineers and other food-industry professionals.
Courses combine scientific and process theory with hands-on laboratory work in small groups.
The inaugural Foodlab Academy program focused on industrial chocolate production, including raw materials, chocolate physics and chemistry, ball-mill processing, tempering and enrobing.
New courses and registration information are published on the Foodlab Academy page.
