About us
Our mission
The Food Pilot provides tailored expertise and support across a wide range of food processing challenges, covering the entire product and process development journey or focusing on specific steps where targeted expertise is needed.
Deeply rooted in food science
The Food Pilot was established in 2011 in response to a growing need within the food industry for pilot-scale infrastructure and specialised technical expertise. With support from the Flemish Minister for Economy, ILVO’s former Dairy Research Station in Melle joined forces with Flanders’ FOOD to invest in versatile, semi-industrial processing equipment.
From the outset, however, the Food Pilot has been about more than infrastructure. Equally important has been the development of in-depth scientific and technological expertise, combined with a professional, hands-on approach to supporting food companies. Today, this combination enables companies to test, optimise and scale up products and processes, and to address specific technological challenges in a well-equipped pilot environment.
Today, the Food Pilot is a highly active hub for food companies. Each year, more than 300 companies come to us for an initial consultation. These consultations are free of charge and without obligation, yet highly focused: several experts join the discussion, bringing together their expertise to explore the company’s question or challenge and identify possible ways forward.
Some figures
In 2025, the Food Pilot provided 250 technology advisory consultations. These typically start with an intake consultation to understand and analyse the company’s specific challenge, followed by expert advice and, where relevant, supporting analyses. Together with the client, our experts identify the most appropriate approach to address the challenge.
In addition, 412 pilot trials were carried out for 104 clients in 2025. Of these clients, 33 were new contacts. Seventy-one were industrial companies, 25% of which were based outside Belgium, while 45% were SMEs. Pilot trials were also conducted for 9 agricultural businesses and 9 knowledge institutions or knowledge-based companies. A further 16 assignments were performed within the framework of national and international research and innovation projects.
A clear trend is the growing volume of research dedicated to alternative protein sources, including fermentation-derived proteins. The largest shares of pilot trials in 2025 focused on dairy alternatives (14%), fermentation-derived proteins (14%), dairy products (11%), meat alternatives (7%) and the valorisation of side streams (7%).
Looking at the organisations requesting pilot trials, the largest share came from knowledge institutions or projects coordinated by knowledge institutions (36%), followed by ingredient suppliers (14%) and companies active in dairy alternatives (6%).
More than 20,000 food analyses
In 2024, the Food Pilot performed more than 20,000 food analyses for over 180 private-sector clients, supporting product improvement and troubleshooting. These clients included food companies, farmers, other laboratories, certification and inspection bodies, consumer organisations, diagnostic kit manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies. Around 60 of these organisations were new clients.
In addition, ILVO produced approximately 90 different quality-assurance materials, including proficiency testing materials, standards, reference series and control samples, for 51 clients. These included milk-testing laboratories, companies, diagnostic kit manufacturers and scientific institutions.
Through its combined activities in technological advice, pilot-scale testing and food analysis, the Food Pilot reaches more than 300 companies every year.
