On March 21, 2022, Assoc. Prof. Siree Chaiseri, Ph.D., together with the High-value Food Program Subcommittee, visited and viewed the progress of the project to scale up and elevate agro-industrial research to industrial level. The Department of Food Technology, Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Technology, Silpakorn University, Sanam Chan Palace, Nakhon Pathom Province, with Asst. Prof. Suchet Samuhasenito, Ph.D., as the project leader, welcoming the visitors. This particular project is a research effort aimed at improving equipment and machinery for the purpose of scaling up production in order to support the innovation and development of OTOP products from each province, providing research services and assistance in technology transfer. The ultimate goal is to support development of new products for START UP and OTOP companies, as well as to be the center of cooperation in the development of innovations and new products in the western provinces.
Food Science Park @SU is the name of the one-stop service center established to provide research services for innovation, production, technology transfer, and development of new products for START UP companies, as well as to serve as a place to learn about production, management, quality control, and training in research skills for students to develop new products. There has been some scaling up of equipment and tools to enhance the overall capability for industrial level production. Furthermore, the project aims to attract partners, private companies, or anyone interested in establishing a startup or expanding business, to come in and learn about the production process, storage, as well as consumer acceptance research (Sensory Evaluation). The ultimate goal of the project is to be the center, which helps to attract investors or funding sources to create a business. The Food Science Park @SU has an information system to establish important databases in various fields, such as a researchers database, research project information database, tools database, as well as system reservations database, etc.
PMUC has provided the tools for laboratories and operation buildings, which are part of the Food Science Park @SU, consisting of high-pressure food processing equipment, twin-screw food extruder equipment set, rotary water spray retort sterilizer kits, and batch evaporator kits, which are essential in a scale-up process at the prototype factory level. Such setup can be useful in testing a production process in preparation to scale up to the industrial scale, helping entrepreneurs to reduce investment risk by emphasizing research on extraction and processing of herbs into health food supplements, various drying techniques for new food products such as Freeze drying, Spray drying, Vacuum microwave drying, Drum drying and Tray drying techniques, etc. It can also be useful in research and development of food processing techniques using high temperature in sealed containers, food processing using high pressure, as well as producing snacks, artificial meat and pet food, etc.
