Message from the Director
Welcome to the website of the Rutgers Food Innovation Center! The Food Innovation Center is a unique business incubation and economic development accelerator program, which is part of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station (NJAES) at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Our Center provides business and technology expertise to startup and established food and value-added agriculture businesses in the mid-Atlantic region, and we utilize our outreach capacity to reach the food industry throughout the world. |
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We are extremely pleased that the Rutgers Food Innovation Center has been internationally recognized for our efforts, and has been:
- Awarded “Incubator of the Year” by the National Business Incubation Association, in the services and manufacturing category, among incubators globally in 2007;
- Recognized by USDA CSREES with its Partnership Award for “Innovative Program Models” in 2007, for “achievement as a model for community and economic development and jobs creation”;
- Recognized by USDA Rural Development as an “Agricultural Innovation Center Demonstration Program,” one of only ten such centers in US.
We are also pleased that we have been recognized for our efforts at Rutgers University as well. In May of 2007, the Food Innovation Center was the recipient of the prestigous Rutgers Presidential Award for Research in Service to New Jersey for “contributions to the health and economic well-being of communities across New Jersey”.
Our outstanding team has provided a full range of services to hundreds of clients to date, since our founding in 2001. Our clients include:
- Farmers and Cooperatives desiring to create new businesses based on value-added agricultural products or considering new markets for their existing commodities;
- Startup Food Companies coping with challenges such as financing, technology, regulations, market development and other infrastructure requirements;
- Existing small and mid-sized food companies seeking to access new technologies, upgrade quality assurance capabilities, enter new markets, and expand and improve their operations; and
- Retail and Foodservice Establishments seeking to improve their operations and purchase locally grown New Jersey products
We have just completed construction of a 23,000 sq. ft. food business incubator facility in Bridgeton NJ, which will be fully operational in October 2008. This state-of-the-art facility will enable the design, development, marketing, analysis, commercialization, and ongoing manufacture of products, for sale to retail and foodservice markets.
Based in Bridgeton (Cumberland County), New Jersey, we are geographically located at the hub of New Jersey’s agricultural sector and in an area that has been economically devastated over the past few decades. To create jobs in this region, a strong, viable food industry is critically needed, and the Food Innovation Center was developed as a catalyst for this growth. We have conservatively estimated our impacts, and project that approximately 1,000 net new jobs and over $200 million in cumulative new revenue will be created by our highest performing clients alone, by the year 2012.
We are extremely thankful for the strong federal, state, and community support we have received, which has enabled us to make such significant progress in such a relatively short period of time. Funding to the Food Innovation Center to date has originated from the Rutgers NJ Agricultural Experiment Station; US Department of Agriculture; US Economic Development Administration; State of New Jersey; NJ Casino Reinvestment Development Authority; NJ Commission on Science & Technology; NJ Department of Agriculture; the Cumberland Empowerment Zone; and the City of Bridgeton NJ.
We invite you to browse our website and learn more about what the Food Innovation Center can do for you. If you have any questions, or would like to receive more information, please contact me or any member of our Food Innovation Center team.
Sincerely,
Lou Cooperhouse
Director, Rutgers Food Innovation Center
