The University of Reading has one of the UK's largest food and nutritional sciences departments, with extensive facilities that enable us to engage in diverse teaching and research.
Food Processing Centre
Our Food Processing Centre is one of the largest facilities of its kind in the UK, with a floor space of 1,100 square metres. The Centre contains processing equipment for food product development work, allowing you to simulate and recreate industry conditions.
Hugh Sinclair Unit of Human Nutrition
The Hugh Sinclair Unit is a leading centre for human clinical nutrition studies, exploring the relationship between diet and the risk of chronic disease.
The Flavour Centre
Understanding the chemistry of flavour is crucial to developing successful new products. Our Flavour Centre helps to ensure that both new and existing products are as appealing as possible.
Sensory Science Centre
The Sensory Science Centre provides high quality sensory evaluation data for industry, as well as the University's research and teaching programmes. Sensory evaluation is vital in gaining an understanding of how we perceive flavour, taste and texture in food.
Flow Cytometry Suite
The Flow Cytometry Suite provides services to investigate the activities of pharmaceuticals and dietary supplements.
Laboratory facilities
Our facilities include a chemical analysis facility with specialist equipment such as NMR spectrometers, mass spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction facilities, as well as extensive laboratories.
Life on campus
Our main campus is set on 130 hectares of beautiful parkland, so you'll find plenty of places to relax. Our campus is home to a thriving community and features the Students' Union, Library and places to eat.
Read Ellie's story
The facilities on offer at Reading are fantastic, and are major assets to the Department. On my course, I may be making ice cream in the pilot plant one day, measuring blood pressure in the Hugh Sinclair Unit the next day, and conducting sensory panels or visiting the University farm the day after that!
Ellie Read, BSc Nutrition and Food Science with Professional Training
Our research
Reading has a long-standing reputation for the quality of its research in food science. 95% of our research is of international standing (Research Excellence Framework 2021, combining 4*, 3* and 2* submissions – Agriculture, Food and Veterinary Sciences).
