NIZO and PSE set up Centre of Excellence

NIZO, the Dutch food and nutrition contract research organization, and Process Systems Enterprise (PSE), a UK advanced process modelling company, have announced the formation of the Centre of Excellence (CoE) for food product and process modeling.

The announcement was made at the Advanced Process Modelling Forum in London, UK, this week.

The CoE will provide a single point service that combines mechanistic product and process modeling tools with food characterization techniques and semi-industrial scale pilot facilities.

This will be achieved by integrating NIZO’s pilot facilities and experience in food characterization and modeling with PSE’s gPROMS modeling platform and unit operation model libraries.

Lower energy use

The companies said the integrated software and services solutions will result in better designed and operated processes with less variability, leading to better product quality, lower energy use – and hence CO2 footprint – and more flexibility when dealing with varying raw ingredients.

Marc Goemans CCO at NIZO, said the new CoE allows the company to provide its customers with an advanced set of modeling tools and services for food product and process design and upscaling, based on true understanding of the underlying food science.

Sean Bermingham, VP for PSE’s formulated products business unit, said the combination of mechanistic models and experimental data is a powerful approach that helps food companies to accelerate getting the right food products to market in the most cost-effective and sustainable way.