Formula Optimization and Shelf Life Testing

George Brown College’s Food Innovation and Research Studio (FIRSt) collaborated with Mado’s on a formula optimization and shelf-life testing project for their signature pepper sauce recipe. Mado’s was established by restaurateur, Erin Dowse, owner of The Old York restaurant, located in Toronto. Mado’s is the brand name of their pepper sauce, which is currently being produced at the Old York restaurant and is distributed to foodservice operators and retailers across the Greater Toronto Area. Mado’s has experienced an increase in consumer demand for their pepper sauce, but due to a short shelf-life stability and limitations on the number of bottles that can be prepared in-house at the restaurant, Mado’s required assistance from FIRSt to develop a recipe formulation that can be used in a co-manufacturing facility. Our goals were to reformulate the product, in order to eliminate the number of prepared ingredients, improve consistency, improve processing methodology, reduce labour input, and scale-up the recipe to have the ability to increase overall production output. After finalizing the new formulation shelf-life was validated. Upon completion of the project, Mado’s has a formulated pepper sauce and a preliminary shelf-life confirmed which can be used by a co-manufacturer for plant trial purposes.