Attention Southern Thai chefs! The Food Research and Innovation Institute of Prince of Songkla University offers lab and equipment rental services for comprehensive extraction/Food ingredients development, along with knowledge transfer to the community and industry.

The market value of extraction products and food ingredients continues to grow steadily due to the current trend of healthy eating among people. This has led to the emergence of new entrepreneurs at small, medium, and large scales who are interested in the extraction market. There is a continuous increase in research and development of new extraction methods and food ingredients. The Innovation Hub network for agriculture and food at Prince of Songkla University is another agency that is ready with experts and research outcomes to advance extraction technology for developing food ingredients from local southern raw materials and utilizing seafood waste to improve quality and increase the value of southern seafood products.
This knowledge is transferred to southern food entrepreneurs who need to develop products for the market. To extend research outcomes for commercial use, it is necessary to study production scale-up conditions, test product production, conduct market testing before actual sales, and develop modern R&D equipment and tools that meet the changing consumer needs.
To build upon research achievements towards scaling up and elevating extraction research, and to transfer technology to industry and entrepreneurs, the Program Management Unit for Competitiveness (PMUC) has supported funding for the development of a GMP-compliant prototype processing plant to create prototype products from research for commercial purposes. This includes funding for the purchase of more than 15 tools and equipment for the Food Innovation and Research Institute at Prince of Songkla University, to develop research services for industry and entrepreneurs, and to enhance research facilities at a scale-up level. This includes equipment such as a twin-screw extruder, a semi-automatic vertical bagging machine, a vacuum system for changing cup-tray sizes, tools for grinding and reducing the size of raw materials and extract powder particles as needed for each product, sample preparation tools like pressing, dehumidifying, drying, and separating liquid particles, larger-scale extraction tools like a 20-liter microwave extraction unit, chromatography purification equipment sized 30-100 liters, pellet forming equipment, and packaging equipment for extract products. All these tools are essential for adding value to food products from local raw materials and extracts from seafood and local herbal by-products, to develop various snack food formulations, product shapes, and packaging, which are in demand by entrepreneurs in the southern region, due to the lack of pilot-scale machinery capable of producing prototype products for market testing.
The institute has opened its labs, equipped with these tools and equipment, for service, and also offers knowledge transfer to interested private entrepreneurs. This aims to link research development for commercial benefit with entrepreneurs, enhancing their potential by providing knowledge access to production process technology, quality standards, and international food safety systems, as well as creating domestic and international market channels. This increases opportunities for southern entrepreneurs to innovate value-added products from local raw materials, commercialize research results through technology pairing, and enhance the competitiveness of food entrepreneurs at the start-up, SME, and community enterprise levels in the southern region, enabling them to compete in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) market and globally, strengthening the southern food industry’s competitiveness on the world stage.
Interested entrepreneurs can check service details and contact for services at:
Website: Food Innovation and Research Institute, Prince of Songkla University
Facebook: Food Innovation and Research Institute, Prince of Songkla University
E-mail: firin.psu@gmail.com