H.J. Heinz Co. chief William R. Johnson yesterday promised to spend almost $100 million on "strategic innovation activities" in North America over the next five years, a hefty promise followed by the rather lightweight exercise of cutting the ribbon on a new $13 million Marshall research center with the help of a ketchup bottle mascot.

	Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette The Heinz ketchup bottle mascot helps Heinz chief William R. Johnson cut the ribbon on the new Global Innovation and Quality Center in Marshall. The 100,000-square-foot-facility is Heinz's global hub for research and development. Click photo for larger image.

"Yes, I can hardly believe I've agreed to be upstaged by a very large, walking -- but not talking -- Mr. Ketchup," said Johnson, as he looked with some dread over at the permanently perky expression sewn onto the posturing bottle person.

The painful experience over, Johnson left, leaving the tours to other staff members who seemed tickled to show off the 100,000-square-foot facility stocked with the latest laboratory, kitchen and testing equipment, as well as enough room to pull together employees who had been split up between several North Side buildings.

From kitchens equipped with one-way mirrors so researchers can watch consumers muddle through cooking directions for new products to rooms with special lighting to mask the color of a food so testers will focus on the taste, the facility has plenty of the latest gizmos.

In the expansive frozen food lab, there were boxes of a new Ore-Ida chilled mashed potato product now being test-marketed in about 300 U.S. stores, part of a strategy of moving the brand known for french fries into the fast-growing chilled foods section of the supermarket.

Over in the packaging development lab stood bottles of the new Silly Squirts ketchup in launch mode.

Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette Lab assistant Sonya Ciletti prepares Smart Ones Shrimp Lo Mein in the frozen food lab at the new $13 million research center. Click photo for larger image.

The product gives kids a choice of three spouts shooting different shaped streams.

Just down the hall, a stack of ketchup bottles packed for sale in warehouse club stores vibrated loudly on testing equipment simulating a 1,000-mile truck ride.

Tour guide Kerr Dow -- otherwise known as vice president, global innovation and quality, and chief technical officer -- lit up as he headed into the 10,000 square-foot pilot plant, where small batches of new products can be manufactured.

The pilot plant's equipment is meant to be flexible, allowing tests of different recipes as well as processes used in Heinz factories around the planet. "When you change something as simple as a pump in a factory, you can wreck a product," said Dow.

Heinz has other research centers in Oregon and California, but the Marshall facility will focus most intensively on its powerhouse ketchup brand.

Work on tomato hybrids will also be done here.

Officials said about 80 percent of the work that will be done in the new 100-employee center has been moved from the North Side, with the rest coming from other pieces of the company.

The hope is that putting food scientists and chefs near each other will break down the walls and feed new ideas across category lines.

If there are any cool, top-secret projects under way in the building originally constructed for high-tech firm Marconi, there was little evidence yesterday. Employees were warned to tuck anything like that out of sight of casual visitors.