Fermentation Farming Lab

Traditional farming took thousands of years to develop and it continues to evolve today. We are witnessing a revolution in farming practices that take advantage of biotechnology and other fields. Fermentation always has been used to improve the quality of foods for human and animal consumption, from pickles to silage, and will continue to provide opportunities to reduce costs and environmental impact while promoting continuous increases in efficiency and productivity.

Technologies such as precision and biomass fermentation allow for the creation of food ingredients that complement our food production system. These opportunities can benefit food manufacturers.

Since the FFL’s approach is project and service-based, any venture in the fermentation farming space may find opportunities with the services provided.

• Reduction of cost and time to reach proof of concept.
• Access to a variety of fermentation and downstream processing options before equipment acquisition decisions are made.
• Support in food product development and food safety relying on 30+ years of expertise from the Cornell Food Venture Center.
• Business development support from the New York State Center of Excellence for Food and Agriculture.

• Storage and maintenance of microbial cultures
• Fermentation from bench scale to 300L in a variety of regimens, including batch to continuous cultures, aerobic and anaerobic, and liquid to solid state processes.
• Microbial challenge studies for evaluation of fermentation safety
• Biomass and bioproduct purification
• Process scaling up (fermentation, separation, drying)
• Food product development from benchtop to pilot scale