The Food Research Institute (FRI) in Ghana is one of the thirteen affiliate Institutes and Centres of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). It was established by the Government of Ghana on 1st Oct. 1963. Legislative Instrument No. 438 of 19th March 1965 later incorporated it into the CSIR as one of the Institutes by a revocation of LI 438 when NLC Decree 293 established the CSIR in October 1968.

Operations of FRI started in 1965 with assistance from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) while the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) acted as the executing agency. The phase of UNDP/FAO project assistance lasted for five years, from October 1965 to September 1970. FRI has since blossomed into a full-fledged Research Institute and much more.