If somebody told you that the future of the food industry was being shaped at a cutting edge facility right here in New Jersey, would you believe it?

  Or, if somebody told you that more than 700 companies had been helped in creating new food products, entering new markets, or improving their operations—all from a facility in South Jersey, would you believe that?

  Or, if somebody told you that one of only 10 centers in the entire country recognized by the US Department of Agriculture as an “Agricultural Innovation Center Demonstration Program” was in Bridgeton, would you believe that?

  Or if somebody told you that the same place that had done all of this had been selected as the 2007 international “Incubator of the Year” in the services and manufacturing category, would you believe that.

  Well, you better believe it.

  It’s the Rutgers Food Innovation Center in Bridgeton. And for the last seven years it’s been one of the state’s “secret” success stories as it served the New Jersey’s $82 billion food and agriculture sector.

  Operating essentially as a “virtual” incubator in just 2,700 feet of space since 2007, the Center has provided access to the technology and the professional counsel that helps companies succeed in the highly competitive food industry.

  Now the “virtual” aspect of the Center’s operation is about to give way to the reality of a brand new 23,000 square foot facility that is as state-of-the-art as you can get as—as far as what you can do with food goes.

  Slated to open this summer with almost 10 times the amount of space, the bricks-and-mortar version of the  Rutgers FIC will be the nation’s only one-stop, totally custom, shared use, University-based food innovation center, according to FIC director Lou Cooperhouse.

  Officially a part of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, the Center has already helped more than 700 food industry companies succeed by providing services that include:
  •  Designing,
  •  Developing,
  •  Testing,
  •  Commercializing,   
  •  Manufacturing, and   
  •  Marketing
  A typical FIC client is Peter Southway of the Sussex County Cooperative Milk Producers Association, who says that the Center “helped us look at the huge dairy industry, analyze it step by step, and apply the principles of a large, complex marketplace to our small niche.

  “They showed us how to drill down the information and focus on our market. They made the connections with the right people for research and answers to very specific questions about the dairy business.”

  Southway’s feelings are shared by Pearl Giordano of Limpert Brothers, who praises the Center’s “vast network of resources to help small companies ands startups develop programs that they would otherwise not be able to afford.”

  “For a little company, the Center is a godsend,” Giordano says.

  Penni Heritage of Heritage Station Vineyards and Winery agrees. She says that without the Center’s help “I know we wouldn’t have succeeded…and we would not be surviving in farming today.”

  According to Cooperhouse, the Center typically deals with four different types of organizations:
  •  An existing small or mid-sized food company investigating access to new technologies, upgrades in quality assurance capabilities, new products, new markets, or the expansion of its operations,
  •  A startup food company coping with financing, technology, regulations, market development, infrastructure requirements and other challenges,
  •  A farmer or farm cooperative creating new businesses based on value-added agricultural products and/or developing new markets for its existing commodities, or
  •  A retail or food service establishment planning to improve its operations and purchase locally grown New Jersey products.

  “We can offer food companies a complete package or an a la carte menu of services from a unique network of university, local, state, and federal partners under one roof,” explains Cooperhouse who is a nationally recognized expert in the field.

  As one industry observer commented recently, “with its new food processing and laboratory space…access to test kitchens, hot and cold processing, and assembly and packaging facilities for companies too new or too small to afford them, who knows what agricultural wonders will show up soon on shelves throughout the state?

  Forget the state. Make that throughout the country…maybe even the world.