Fou Food Lab
- Type
- Professional Service Provider
- Location
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Industries
- Alternative proteins, Food ingredients & products, Waste efficiency, Food safety & quality, Food reformulation
- Domains
- Algae, Plant based primary products, Beer, Processed food products
- Technologies
- Fermentation, Enzyme technology, Precision fermentation, Biotechnology & sustainable inputs
About Fou Food Lab
Fou Food Lab is a one-woman food technology and product development company run by Ivana Mik. It helps startups, restaurants, and larger food businesses turn ideas into scalable products, with a strong focus on fermentation, food science, and culinary quality.
The company works from concept through pilot scale and supports both fermented and non-fermented product development. Its positioning combines hard-core food science with hands-on kitchen experience, aiming to create products that are not only technically feasible, but also delicious and practical to produce.
Core Values
- Deliciousness first: Recipes are developed to be technically sound and scalable, but always with taste as a central requirement.
- Scientific rigor: The company draws on formal training in food biotechnology and biorefinery, and applies food science methods to product development and process design.
- Practical scalability: Fou Food Lab focuses on solutions that can move from idea to pilot scale and into real production settings.
- Collaboration and knowledge transfer: Training and co-development are central, helping clients and their teams build lasting in-house capability.
- Creativity in fermentation: The company treats fermentation as both a technical discipline and a creative tool for flavor, texture, and product innovation.
Unique Aspects
- Fermentation-led specialization: Fou Food Lab has a clear specialty in fermented products, but applies that expertise across drinks, dairy-style alternatives, sauces, condiments, and other applications.
- Blend of lab and culinary experience: Ivana Mik combines academic training in food biotechnology with practical experience from the Noma fermentation lab and work with both startups and multinationals.
- Broad project range: The company has worked on projects ranging from grass protein and cocoa juice to coffee, algae pigments, chicken waste valorization, and low-alcohol beer research.
- International experience: Project work has included collaborations in the Netherlands and abroad, including Myanmar, Zambia, and Denmark, which supports cross-cultural product and supply-chain work.
- Community-building around fermentation: Beyond client work, Fou Food Lab runs a fermentation club and a fermentation podcast, reinforcing its role as a knowledge hub in the field.