Pinnacle Foods Asks Rutgers To Reinvigorate Its Once Iconic Brands

By Karla Paris

Packaged-foods manufacturer finds help with university innovation to establish an on-site R&D facility

Remember the iconic-food figure Mrs. Butterworth? Or maybe the Vlasic Pickle Stork strikes your memory? Most likely, you remember these creative product-pushing characters.  Since 1961, Mrs. Butterworth has long been a family favorite and in support of its mission to “Reinvigorate Iconic Brands”, Pinnacle Foods announced it has opened an R&D pilot plant at Rutgers University to help bring new life into these perhaps forgotten marketing characters.

The pilot plant, designed for Pinnacle's Duncan Hines Grocery Division, includes the company’s brands such as Duncan Hines, Vlasic, Wish-Bone, Mrs. Butterworth's, and Log Cabin. The plant within Rutgers University’s Food Innovation Center will enable the company to increase its R&D capabilities, scale up learnings for commercialization, further support Pinnacle's brand renovation and productivity, and improve the company’s ability to bring new products to market. 

Employees, as well as students, of the Rutgers University's Food Innovation Center guide clients through the many complex steps that are required to bring food concepts in to reality. Many services available through the Food Innovation Center provide a comprehensive solution to clients. The Rutgers Food Innovation Center is a unique business incubation and economic development accelerator program, which provides business and technology expertise to both startup and established food companies. 

Unlike most service providers, the Food Innovation Center offers comprehensive business and technology solutions from early-stage concept development through manufacturing and sales. This is accomplished by taking advantage of a unique network of university, local, state, and federal partners, enabling the facility to provide companies with customized solutions for business establishment and growth.

The pilot plant at Rutgers Food Innovation Center is the first university-affiliated pilot site for Pinnacle.  It expands the company's existing relationship with the institution that began in 2013 through an undergraduate internship program.  The partnership will allow Pinnacle to leverage the technologies of the University partnering with the Food Science, Packaging, and Engineering departments.

Pinnacle will outfit the pilot plant with its equipment that mirrors its production processes at the company’s Grocery Division plants. Consumer testing will also be conducted at the plant. Additionally, Pinnacle will have the ability to evaluate various process changes outside the plant environment and bring in equipment for testing.  The plant is a USDA and FDA-inspected facility that will comply with Pinnacle's quality, safety, training, and standard operating protocols.