GEA New Food Application & Technology Center

GEA New Food Application & Technology Center (ATC)

This 13,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility officially opened in July 2025. Located in Janesville, WI, it has been designed to bring together the technologies required to explore, discover and ultimately produce a diverse range of future proteins at scale. This includes foods, beverages and ingredients that are plant-based, cell-based and insect-based, as well as those requiring precision fermentation. The facility was established to provide companies exploring or diversifying into new foods with the ability to refine ideas and create exciting, sustainable and economically feasible products.

Customers who work with us to develop future proteins benefit from our comprehensive expertise in all types of food and beverage processing, as well as parallel capabilities in pharmaceutical processing. This cross-industry expertise is leveraged to support applications requiring precision fermentation and cell-based cultivation.

Further, pilot-size equipment in the Janesville facility can also be used to test more traditional food and beverage products, including aseptic beverage applications. This allows customers to evaluate processes or formulations without interrupting revenue generating manufacturing lines.

Part of a complete solution for new food processing and packaging

The New Food Application & Technology Center provides technologies required for mixing, sterilization, cultivation, harvesting, separation and drying. Other GEA technology centers, both in North America and Europe, are available to cover further processing, including formulation, extrusion, forming and packaging.

This integrated network makes GEA the only industry supplier capable of delivering complete solutions for future protein production and packaging, further bridging the gap from lab discovery to supermarket reality.

The vital role testing plays

Testing is crucial even at the earliest stages of product development. It confirms if a technology will work for a specific application, identifies potential challenges, provides critical data for scale-up, allows production of representative samples, and works to define KPI’s for production scale equipment. Ultimately, testing can accelerate the transition to large-scale production, ensuring that solutions are both sustainable and commercially viable.

To assist customers as they move through the product development and testing process, the ATC is staffed with a team of experts in new food and related applications. The team includes a test engineer, lab technologist, equipment operators and senior scientists.

Equipment for Unit Operations

More than 15 pieces of pilot-scale equipment in the ATC allows testing at a volume close to industrial scale. The set up is flexible, modular and comprehensive enough for evaluating new food concepts and processes as well as standard applications. GEA equipment available in the Janesville facility includes:

In-house Lab

The New Food ATC is equipped with a complete laboratory, offering both cold storage (-80°C) and autoclave sterilization. The lab has been set up to propagate microbial and cell cultures, as well as to facilitate a range of testing, including:

Microbiological testing
Metabolic measurements
pH
Total solids
Density
Viscosity
Microscopy
Spectroscopy

For a more complete description of the facility, please review our brochure.

View brochure

To find out more about what the New Food Application & Technology Center has to offer or to set up a visit, please contact your GEA representative or use the contact us button below.

Janesville, WI