The Drexel University Food Lab has been an effective partner to manufacturers, distributors, retailers and non-profits in making value-added products from surplus foods. It trains the next generation of food industry professionals. A grant from the Critical Issue Fund will support the development of the Surplus Food R&D Center at Drexel University. The Center will engage students and faculty to do applied research on consumer behavior and acceptance, product development and innovation, food safety, as well as health and nutrition of value-added products made from surplus food. The Surplus Food R&D Center will take foods and food byproducts that are often discarded as waste and develops them into safe, healthy, cost-effective and actionable products that an entrepreneur, social enterprise, or established food company could take to market.