Products & services

From Prototype to Market-Ready Solutions

We provide food product development services, including prototyping, consumer preference testing, MVP development, and market potential testing.

Our multidisciplinary team combines scientific and gastronomic expertise to deliver tailor-made solutions that help you bring products to market efficiently, ensuring they are technically sound and optimized for taste.

Services

To maximize impact, we recommend a phased approach that combines prototyping* and testing** in iterative cycles. Alternatively, each phase can also be carried out independently, depending on your specific needs and objectives.

*Prototyping includes preliminary research, recipe development, tastings in our R&D kitchen, formalized recipe and process reporting, and expert feedback.
**Testing includes experimental design, setup and coordination, recipe development, data analysis, and formalized reporting.

1. Proof of Concept (PoC) Prototyping

We begin by exploring your idea through preliminary research and recipe development. Our team creates exploratory food prototypes, typically five per tasting session, to assess feasibility and direction.

2. Consumer Preferences Test

Once PoC prototypes are developed, we conduct food consumer testing with a panel of international students and staff. This helps identify which product attributes resonate most with consumers and guides the next iteration.

3. Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Prototyping

Using feedback from consumer preference test, we refine the concept into pre-industrialization prototypes, typically two per tasting session.

4. Market Potential Test

To validate commercial viability, we test the Minimum Viable Product Prototype in one or more of our 15 on-campus points of sale. This provides real-world data on consumer behavior, purchasing patterns, and product performance. Optional food waste analysis is available.

5. Analyses

We offer the possibility to analyze the prototypes developped, working in collaboration with trusted laboratory partners. These analyses include:

Nutritional tests (BIG8): Energy, Fats, Saturated Fat, Carbohydrate, Sugars, Fiber, Protein, Salt
Vitamin tests: Price varies depending on the vitamin
Microbiological aging tests: Mesophilic aerobic bacteria, Coagulase-positive Staphylococcus, Bacillus cereus, Enterobacteriaceae

Market Potential Testing Facilities

Our campus includes 16 diverse points of sale for real-world product testing, where we conduct market potential tests.

Restaurants & Dining

Diverse culinary experiences, from casual grab-and-go to fine dining restaurants.

Cafés & Juice Bar

Locations featuring specialty coffee, juices, soft drinks, and more.

Bars & Lounge

Bars and lounges serving cocktails, wine, and tapas.

Restaurants & Dining

Diverse culinary experiences, from casual grab-and-go to fine dining restaurants.

Berceau des Sens: Michelin-starred gastronomic restaurant

1893: High-end bistronomy with seasonal, local cuisine

NoriNori: Sushi restaurant with sustainably-sourced ingredients

Shadwood: Fast-casual dining with 100% plant-based offerings

Food Court: Eight stations serving global cuisine, including Asian, vegan, grill, cold dishes, trattoria, starters, and pastries. Also serves breakfast.

Shadwood: Fast-casual dining with 100% plant-based offerings

Grab N’ Go: Takeaway sandwiches, bento boxes, salads, and more The Gourmet

Finger Food: Quick meals like burgers, paninis, and tacos

Boutique: Fresh-baked bread, pastries, desserts, and fine foods

R Corner: Connected fridges in student residences

Cafés & Juice Bar

Locations featuring specialty coffee, juices, soft drinks, and more.

Bar M: Popular bar serving coffee, lunch drinks, and evening cocktails

Bar P: Fresh juices, smoothies, iced coffee

Coffee Corner: Specialty coffee and barista products

Academia Vergnano: Italian-style specialty coffee and barista products

Bars & Lounge

Bars and lounges serving cocktails, wine, and tapas.

Lounge Bar: Comfortable cocktail bar with a wide selection of drinks

La Ferme MJF: Wine bar and tapas

Bar M: Popular bar serving coffee, lunch drinks, and evening cocktails

What Makes Us Unique

Multidisciplinary Expertise

The Institute benefits from the unique ecosystem of EHL Hospitality Business School, with access to world-class experts across many food and hospitality domains:

Mixology
Oenology (with Italy’s Best Sommelier)
Barista arts
Cuisine (two Meilleurs Ouvriers de France)
Bakery (one MoF)
Pastry (one MoF)
Catering (one MoF)

Beyond craftsmanship, we integrate expertise in chemistry, business strategy, and product development to support every stage of the innovation process.

Multipurpose Culinary R&D Facilities

EHL offers top-level gastronomy labs that support a wide range of prototyping and testing activities.

Facilities include an R&D kitchen, pastry labs equipped for chocolate and ice cream production, a dedicated bakery, large-scale sous-vide cooking capacity, and a fast-food kitchen.

These spaces are designed to accommodate diverse culinary processes and support innovation across multiple food categories, thus allowing agile experimentation, cross-category innovation, and smooth transition from pilot to production.

Taste at the Heart of Innovation

At the intersection of gastronomy and science, our team explores the mechanics of flavor and texture to enhance both product quality and consumer experience.

By pairing culinary creativity with food science, we develop products that are technically optimized and scalable, without ever compromising on taste.

EHL Institute of Nutrition R&D - Real world feedback

Real-world Feedback and Ongoing Improvements

We operate through an open, collaborative model, partnering with diverse key industry players and start-ups.

Real-world feedback is systematically integrated into our methods, driving ongoing improvement and fostering a culture of experimentation and adaptability.

This approach ensures faster learning cycles, greater relevance, and solutions grounded in practical application.

EHL Institute of Nutrition R&D - Independant ecosystem

Independent Ecosystem

Our Institute operates with full autonomy in ingredient sourcing and production, allowing us to experiment freely and objectively across a wide range of products and processes.

This independence ensures that industrial constraints never compromise taste or quality, while also enabling rapid prototyping and scalable innovation.

End-to-end Collaboration

We partner with trusted collaborators to support additional phases of the product journey, including ingredient sourcing, scale-up, production, and advanced nutritional and microbiological analysis, ensuring continuity from concept to commercialization.

Service & Fees Catalogue

Download our catalogue to discover how we can support your product development goals.

EHL Hospitality Business School
Route de Berne 301
1000 Lausanne 25
Switzerland