The LSU AgCenter Food Incubator is planning to expand this summer with the addition of a full-scale bottling facility.
Food Incubator Director Gaye Sandoz says LSU plans to repurpose an old warehouse on the southeast side of campus, near the AgCenter complex, and transform it into the bottling facility. It will be located at the intersection of Nicholson Drive Extension and Highland Road.
“We’ve found entrepreneurs are successful in our food incubator but don’t have anywhere to grow beyond that,” Sandoz says.
Several of the tenants have had trouble finding co-packers—third party companies that will package the products—and LSU’s incubator is running out of space to handle bottling, Sandoz says.
The bottling facility will allow tenants to package products such as gelato, salsa, oils, dressings and hummus, among other foods and drinks. Tenants and students will also be able to learn how to operate a full-scale bottling line, Sandoz says.
Sandoz says LSU is using part of a $2.5 million federal grant obtained in 2014 to help pay for equipment in the new facility, but she does not have an estimate for how much it will cost in total or how long the project will take to complete. The renovation of the warehouse will begin in next month, she says.
Tenants at the incubator make their products alongside food scientists and other academics who help bring them to market. As Business Report detailed in a recent cover story about the Food Incubator, 35 food companies have been brought on as tenants since the facility opened in January 2013. Sandoz says the tenants are currently producing 80 different products, adding roughly 135 tons of product have been made at the incubator since it was launched.
—Sam Karlin
