TasteLab - Food Quality & Consumer Acceptance Innovation Testbed

The food sector is among the six strategic priority areas driving development in North Savo. Current development efforts focus on strengthening collaboration between regional actors, improving the region’s food system resilience and security of supply, and harnessing research and innovation to support food product development. Local food companies operate with limited resources and compete in markets where product differentiation, quality, and consumer trust are crucial. Long shelf life contributes to sustainability goals and export readiness, but ultimately a food product succeeds only if consumers embrace it. Food has to taste and look good.

In North Savo, food companies actively develop new products. Still, practical and objective insights into the factors influencin the taste, quality, and consumer preferences are often difficult to obtain. A reliable, expert‑driven, and customizable testing service would support companies in product development and commercialization. Testing service would ensure that products reaching the market are attractive to their target consumers and maintain their quality over time. There is a clear regional need for such centralized expertise and testing infrastructure.

The project TasteLab – Food Quality & Consumer Acceptance Innovation Testbed aims to build a testing environment that directly supports regional food innovation. It addresses the industry’s need to develop appealing, great‑tasting products while considering the full spectrum of food quality: microbiological, nutritional, chemical, and sensory. The goal is to strengthen regional expertise in food quality management and its verification, with particular emphasis on sensory quality—taste, smell, appearance, and texture—and consumer acceptance. The project also encourages companies to explore modern processing methods that support quality and shelf life, such as freeze‑drying, helping generate new types of products and enabling quality testing.

The aim of the project is to generate expertise, new operational models, and open knowledge for the benefit of companies in Northern Savo. The project utilizes the food research facilities of the University of Eastern Finland, part of the national FOODNUTRI research infrastructure. It works in close collaboration with the AgriFood Cluster North Savo and the local Food Valley network. Overall, TasteLab strengthens food‑sector R&D as part of the region’s innovation ecosystem, fostering collaboration and engaging actively with stakeholders across the field.