Univar Solutions has started a collaboration with The Hatchery Chicago, a non-profit food business incubator, to foster food and beverage innovation in what’s tipped as one of North America’s largest incubator facilities.

The Hatchery Chicago is now home to Univar Solutions’ new Food Solution Center, part of a specialized international network of Solution Centers.

These centers of excellence include formulation labs, research and development centers and test kitchens. The idea is they will help deliver innovative solutions across a range of industries.

“Launching a new Food Solution Center and sponsoring The Hatchery Chicago demonstrates our commitment to support local communities at the growing epicenter of food ingredient innovation,” says Kevin Hack, vice president of global food ingredients at Univar Solutions. 

“As collaboration and innovation are at the heart of our Solution Centers, we are thrilled to be a part of the entrepreneurial and creative collaboration happening within this exciting development hub to help our suppliers and customers find their next sustainable food innovation.”

Targeting food entrepreneursThese centers of excellence include formulation labs.
Through the company’s work at The Hatchery Chicago, Univar Solutions hopes to foster a spirit of innovation and drive solutions for the technical challenges shaping the future of food. 

According to the company, this includes helping to support The Hatchery Chicago’s advancement of women-owned and Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) owned businesses.

Univar Solutions will focus on meeting consumer demands for the latest high-quality ingredients and developing clean label food products that help deliver on the need for healthier, more sustainable ingredients. 

Combining culinary science with application development support, it will work closely with its customers, suppliers and the local food and beverage community to nurture creative problem-solving and serve innovative formulations, recipes and ingredient kits to help brands of all sizes grow and thrive.    

“Having both culinary chefs and culinary development scientists collaborating under one roof will help take customer projects to the next level, driving technical excellence within the North America food industry and globally as we deliver innovative solutions together,” adds Dr. Andrew Mint, director, global solution centers.