Food Entrepreneur - September 15, 2020 - 7

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chef and saying, 'We need 20 new menu
ideas.' That chef could be the most
talented person in the world, but no chef

"The avocado seed brew is a perfect
example," Dr. Deustch said. "It can't
really be more low-tech. They take the

Entrepreneurship at Drexel University
and the food innovation accelerator
Food-X to build the business. But the

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'Somewhere in every culinary or food
science program there has to be that
opportunity to try things, make
mistakes and take risks.'
- Jonathan Deutsch, PhD, Drexel Food Lab
is more creative than putting 10 or 12
students together in a room and letting
them generate ideas."
In the food industry, innovation is a
buzzword that often is overused or misapplied to product line extensions, new
flavors or packaging, and formulation updates, Dr. Deustch said. The Drexel Food
Lab focuses on cooking as the root of innovation, demonstrating true innovation
can be uncomplicated, no frills even.
September 15, 2020

avocado seeds and steep them and make
a brew, which, from a technical standpoint, is as easy as making tea."

Scale up and hunker down
Months of iterating and hundreds of
consumer taste tests proved Ms. Bahirat
and Ms. Masud had created a viable
product concept. The pair received
support from the Baiada Institute for

path forward was not without hurdles.
"When we started out, we didn't know
if this brew was safe for human consumption," Ms. Bahirat said. "We had to hire
experts to go through toxicology tests to
make sure there was nothing we missed.
We had to do all of that before anyone
would even talk to us, which is a lot for grad
students who don't have a lot of money."
Another challenge involved
securing supply of avocado seeds. The
Food Business News

7
Food Entrepreneur - September 15, 2020

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