Develop, scale and launch your novel food innovations

From concept to commercial scale, our expertise and support to get your food innovation to market faster.

A trusted partner for the next generation of food

Based at Wilton Centre in the Tees Valley, CPI’s Novel Food Innovation Centre is a dedicated, lab-scale food-grade facility designed to help you overcome the biggest challenges in developing and scaling novel and sustainable food ingredients. Whether using precision fermentation, cell culture or cellular agriculture to make alternative proteins or functional ingredients, we offer a unique, integrated solution to de-risk your route to market.

We are FSSC 22000 certified and our facilities operate under HACCP principles to ensure your products meet international food safety standards. From lab to pilot scale, we support seamless scale-up and process validation, all in one facility.

Why work with us?

The challenges:

Scaling up is expensive and risky. For many companies, investing in pilot or commercial-scale infrastructure is financially out of reach and rarely makes sense until the process is proven. Without access to the right infrastructure and expertise, promising innovations can stall before reaching the market.
Processes don’t always behave the same at scale. Lab-scale methods often fail during scale-up, resulting in low yields, poor reproducibility and added cost.
Regulatory approvals are complex. Meeting FSA, EFSA or FDA novel food requirements demands extensive data, safety testing and process validation, which is a costly and time-consuming process without the right expertise.

How CPI can provide the solutions:

Purpose-built for novel food development

Our facility is the only site in the UK that offers FSSC 22000 certified end-to-end scale-up from lab scale to 400L in one location, reducing risk, eliminating costly tech transfer delays and accelerating your journey to market.

Key technologies include:

High-throughput fermentation tools (Ambr15, Ambr250) to enable cost-effective, data-rich process development.
Parallel 1L bioreactor systems to generate robust datasets across multiple conditions.
Lab and pilot food-grade fermentation facilities from 1L to 400L.
Dedicated food-safe analytical labs for characterisation, quality, and safety assessment.
Expert regulatory support aligned with HACCP, FSSC 22000 and FDA frameworks.

Discover our latest Market Insight explores the key trends, technologies, and market signals shaping the future of food in the first quarter of 2025. Fill out the form below to download the report and to stay ahead in this fast-growing sector.

De-risk your route to market

We specialise in:

Precision and biomass fermentation for sustainable, consistent ingredient production.
Process development and scale up of alternative proteins, using microbial, cell-based, cell ag and plant-based formats.
Functional ingredients like prebiotics, bioactives and tailored nutritional additives.
Optimising feedstocks for cost, sustainability and performance.
Producing samples for market testing, investor demonstrations and regulatory submissions.

Our team works side-by-side with you to optimise your formulation, enhance bioavailability or texture, and meet global food safety standards, enabling faster and safer product development.

Designed for innovation. Built for impact.

Whether you’re an early-stage innovator or a global brand developing the next generation of functional foods, CPI helps you validate, scale and demonstrate your novel food product in a real-world environment.

Our infrastructure and services are designed to:

Cut development costs.
Reduce time to market.
Improve scale-up success rates.
Enable the regulatory approval process.
Make your product more attractive to partners and investors.

You’ll gain access to CPI’s cross-disciplinary expertise in biotechnology, chemistry, formulation, and regulatory science, as well as deep connections across the UK’s innovation and investor ecosystem.

Let’s get your innovation to the table!

Are you developing a novel food ingredient or technology? Let’s talk about how we can help you accelerate its journey from lab bench to commercial shelf — safely, efficiently, and at scale.

Get in touch with our team today, it doesn’t cost anything to have a call with one of our experts or to book a visit to the Novel Food Innovation Centre.