NAIC will allow customers to assess BSF varieties, operational parameters, and practices for efficient industrial-scale production. It will also offer workshops, training sessions, and seminars on the benefits and best practices of insect protein production.

NRGene’s BSF variety collection, combined with advanced genomics and phenotyping capabilities, enables the development of tailored BSF strains with improved functionalities such as better feed conversion rate or higher protein content while considering customers’ specific by-product-based feed. Bühler has installed its trial rearing unit (TRU), a climate-controlled larvae growth chamber, to optimize the growth and development of BSF larvae.

Andreas Baumann, head of market segment insect technology at Bühler, said, “The centre will serve as a meeting place for our clients, particularly those from North America, to collaboratively optimize insect plant operation. Together, we can fine-tune both biological and technological aspects, to maximize the value of our clients’ projects.”

The centre is located at the Innovation Center of Saskatchewan University. NRGene Canada is in talks with local food producers to evaluate the suitability of their waste for growing BSF.

“I come from a family of entrepreneurs. My mom’s an entrepreneur, my grandmother was an entrepreneur, my great-grandmother was an entrepreneur, so I feel like entrepreneurship runs in my blood. As a child, I was always told to create my own destiny. So that was kind of instilled in me growing up,” recalled Bednarski-Malik.

Her passion for food and nutrition eventually led her to become a dietitian as well as attend culinary school. Her professional quest then became one of finding ways to merge her culinary skills and nutrition. Sadly, a health issue pumped the brakes on her plans and made her focus on healing herself.

“It took me two years to recover from an eating disorder. During that process, I reconnected with food and found my love for food again,” said Bednarski-Malik.

In 2014, she decided to create foods that made her feel good. She began experimenting with kale.

“I love vegetables. I would eat these kale chips, and I felt okay. They’re healthy, low in sugar, nutrient dense, and I could feel good about eating them,” she said.

Julie Bednarski-Malik, MHSc, PHEc, RD.

Starbucks as partner

Bednarski-Malik wasn’t the only one who liked the kale chips; her friends and family members found it delicious too. Thus began Healthy Crunch in 2014. It was also fortuitous that her first customer was Starbucks.

Bednarski-Malik was making her kale chips at a collective kitchen where she was renting a table by the hour. During a networking event at the kitchen, Bednarski-Malik offered her chips to a woman who wanted to share them with her friend. She didn’t know then, but the friend was Rossann Williams, head of Starbucks North America at that time. As the story goes, Williams loved the kale chips and contracted Healthy Crunch to make them for Starbucks.

“We started off with one really great partner who believed in us. And Starbucks was such a great customer to launch with because they have a [huge] brand presence. When you’re in Starbucks, people believe you’re legitimate. One year after launching in Starbucks, we had tremendous growth,” she recalled.

The company ended up with listings at Costco, Shoppers Drug Mart, Loblaws, and Ikea.

“Our kale chips were everywhere; all over Canada, in airports and movie theatres. Cineplex was selling our kale chips. kale was on trend at the time,” she said. “It was the colour of the year. It was just about being at the right place at the right time. I think all the stars were aligned for it to happen.”

The success was immensely appreciated because kale chips is a challenging product to manufacture. It’s a three-day process. Bednarski-Malik also faced supply issues.

“There are not that many kale chips out there right now because it’s very fragile. It takes a long time to make. You’re using fresh ingredients. Sometimes kale is fluffy and sometimes it’s not. There are so many variables to it,” she explained.

Despite the challenges, Healthy Crunch continued making its flagship product. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, they couldn’t source the required amount of kale, and the company had to discontinue its most popular product.

Beyond chips

This decision kick-started the next phase of Healthy Crunch, which celebrates its 10^th anniversary this year (If you’re missing their kale chips, Healthy Crunch has relaunched it as part of their anniversary celebrations). It currently has more than 120 vegan, school-approved products, such as seed butters and jams, granola bars, trail mixes, crispy squares, dark chocolates and instant lattes. Their most popular products are granola bars and dark chocolates.

“We have to be super unique, but we also don’t want to be too unique where we have to educate the customer,” she explained. “We launched into categories where consumers know the product.”

For instance, jams, but with a Healthy Crunch twist, meaning reduced sugar, increased fibre, a clean ingredient deck without additives, colourings and preservatives. Another example is their nutrient-dense crispy squares instead of the full-on sugar rush that comes with typical rice crispies.

Bednarski-Malik chose this middle ground because consumer awareness takes a long time and resources. For a lean company like Healthy Crunch with only 12 employees, it’s not profitable to be launching uber niche products and spending thousands of dollars in raising awareness about new product categories.

Healthy Crunch manufactures its products out of a SQF level two certified facility in Mississauga, Ont. The products are free of 11 major food allergens, which comes out of Bednarski-Malik’s desire to make healthy eating inclusive. They have more than 20,000 points of distribution.

Healthy Crunch products are also sold in the U.S., the U.K. and the Middle East. After a decade of sustained growth, Bednarski-Malik is now ready to expand into other markets.

“There are a lot of major U.S. retailers that we want to launch into like Target and some other larger product categories too. I’m also thinking of launching into Europe, as there’s so much opportunity over there,” she said.

Bednarski-Malik strongly feels Healthy Crunch has the potential to take advantage of the whitespace in the global better-for-you category.

Sriracha is leading the charge. According to statistics from Kerry Group, 20 million bottles of Sriracha were sold globally. By 2023, that number had doubled to 40 million.

“Heat lends itself to a lot of experiential flavours, like sensory. You’re engaging sensory notes for consumers in many different products,” says Soumya Nair, global consumer research and insights director at Kerry. “Heat has always been there, but lately, it has taken more meaning for consumers, such as adventure and tasting the provenance of the spice. It’s not just chilli, or it’s not just chilli with sweet, chilli with savoury; it is chilli from a specific part of the world, a specific country. It’s travel through your taste buds. Heat has some shock value that lends itself to categories like sweet. Chilli doesn’t mean just chilli anymore. Chilli does bring in a lot more of that drama and adventure travelling through your taste buds.”

Kerry Taste Charts for 2024 outline the rising spices and interesting new heat flavours. Specific to Canada, chilli pepper has become mainstream in the past five years, along with smoked flavour and black pepper. Additional essential flavours include curry, chipotle chilli, and jalapeño chilli. Some of the fastest-growing flavours in the last three years include peri-peri, smoked paprika, smoky barbecue, Korean barbecue, spicy buffalo, sweet chilli, Indian tikka masala, habanero chilli, and Jamaican jerk. The fastest growing in the last year are increasingly complex flavours, like Sichuan chilli, turmeric, adobo, Nashville heat, pepper lemon, chimichurri, hot honey, gochujang, and mole poblano.

What demographics are driving growth in hot and spicy food profiles? “Historically, we would have said younger people are more accepting of heat, but we’ve been saying younger people are more accepting for a decade. Those young people have become older, so the hot and spicy lovers are now more experienced,” says Nair. “Boomers in the older demographic, empty-nesters, recent empty-nesters, are also open to exploring flavours. They’re the ones who typically have the disposable income to travel around the world and be exposed to so many cultures and flavours. They’re much more ready to try those spices and heat when they return home.”

Firebelly Tea offers a fennel tea with anise and chilli. Photo © Firebelly Tea

New products

The spread category is enlivened with heat, especially honey, but what about various kinds of nut butter? Dumornay Delis (dD), the Montreal-based company owned by Jason Delis and Stanley Dumornay, entered the hot-spread market with their Manba line of peanut butter after the pair travelled to Haiti for volunteer humanitarian work. The Haitian-inspired peanut butter is made from ground, roasted peanuts. The peanut butter has a hot pepper kick from Scotch Bonnet pepper.

“Manba is a natural peanut butter that’s very creamy and can be drizzled on granola or ice cream, whereas hydrogenated peanut butter has to be scooped out of the jar,” Delis explains while sharing its use beyond bread.

Boccalino began as a restaurant in Canmore, Alta., until patrons started purchasing bottles of the house Caesar and Swiss dressings faster than the team could produce. The restaurant closed, and Boccalino Fine Foods began.

“The Chipotle Caesar is our Classic Caesar recipe turned up a notch with a slightly smoky and spicy addition of chipotle pepper and spices,” says Jamie Ayles, company owner and chef. “The Mango Jalapeno marries zesty, spicy, sour, sweet, and hot to compliment fresh and crisp produce or seafood.”

Snack company NaturSource has created a spicy version of kettle-cooked praline almonds with cayenne and habanero pepper. Photo © NaturSource

Over at NaturSource, based in St. Laurent, Que., the company’s Siracha-inspired Salad Topper Sriracha Crunch is made with dry-roasted nuts and seeds. These include almonds, pecans, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, wheat noodles, and a spice blend with a little cane sugar for sweetness.

“Sometimes even the most delicious ingredients need that extra heat,” says Mitch Oberfield, executive vice president. “Don’t limit yourself to salads: snack straight out of the bag, add it to your next wrap or sprinkle on top of staples like rice and quinoa to turn ordinary into extraordinary.”

The brand recently launched Hot Maple Almonds.

“As snacking innovators, we challenged ourselves to put a NaturSource twist on your pantry staple,” says Oberfield.

The kettle-cooked praline almonds are a protein-rich snack given a spicy kick with the addition of cayenne and habanero pepper.

Two teas, Zest for Life and Internal Combustion, from Firebelly Tea, follow the trend for heat. Founded by David Segal, who co-founded DavidsTea and Shopify president Harvey Finkelstein, the Ottawa-based Firebelly Tea is on a mission to create “premium loose-leaf tea with real flavours and real ingredients from the finest global suppliers.” The company launched in 2022 after spending 18 months developing its range of over 20 teas.

“Zest for Life is a lemon ginger green tea with chilli spice. It packs some serious heat! We made this tea for spice lovers, and each ingredient has strong health benefits,” explains Segal. “Internal Combustion is a fennel tea with a sweet and spicy balance of anise and chilli.”

For sweet heat, Hummingbird, a pure craft bean-to-bar chocolate manufacturing company in Almonte, Ont., produces a bar called Mayan. The 68 per cent single-origin dark chocolate bar has a blend of spices for a subtle heat, including cinnamon, nutmeg, and chilli.

“We craft our chocolate from sustainably sourced cacao beans in our factory rather than purchasing bulk chocolate. Our single-origin bars have just three ingredients and highlight the natural flavours and terroir of each origin,” says co-owner Erica Gilmour. “We created our Mayan spice bar to honour the origins of cacao and chocolate. This recipe includes some of the traditional spices added to the cacao drink made by the Maya people of Central America.”

The Canadian consumer demands new tastes with complex flavours and various heat levels. Brands continue to offer innovative new food and beverage products to meet this demand.

Health Canada is considering providing a one-year transition period to allow impacted beverages to be reformulated and relabelled, since the updated safety assessment did not find an immediate health concern with the current permitted use of BVO as a food additive.

As set out in Item B.3 of the List of permitted food additives with other accepted uses, BVO is currently permitted for use as a density adjusting agent at a maximum level of 15 ppm in beverages containing citrus or spruce oils, as consumed.

The modification to the list and the transition period will be announced soon. In the meantime, Health Canada invites industry stakeholders to offer feedback. It’ll accept feedback until July 30, 2024. For details, click here.

Food risk refers to the likelihood of harm occurring due to consuming a particular food product. Food risk assessment involves identifying potential hazards, evaluating their likelihood and severity, and implementing measures to mitigate them.

Food fraud involves the intentional deception for economic gain, where food products are adulterated, mislabelled, or misrepresented. This deception can occur at any stage of the supply chain and may involve dilution, substitution, or addition of unauthorized substances.

A food threat typically refers to deliberate acts or intentional contamination of food with harmful agents, such as toxins, chemicals, or biological agents, with the intent to cause harm to consumers, disrupt food supplies, or instil fear.

Food vulnerability refers to the susceptibility of the food supply chain to various risks, threats, and vulnerabilities that may compromise its integrity, safety, and security. This includes weaknesses in infrastructure, processes, and control systems that can be exploited by malicious actors or natural events.

All of these food risks work in interacting ways. The cinnamon and apple sauce incident certainly struck fear into many consumers’ minds. It was a case of fraud because lead chromate was used as an adulterant to increase the weight of cinnamon for sale.

Assessing risk

Risk assessment methodology requires an approach similar to HACCP hazard identification and risk assessment but may require extension of the boundaries of the assessment. It is up to individual organizations to determine what the boundaries of control can be. For some, those boundaries extend one supplier back. With access to blockchain traceability, boundaries of control can extend potentially even farther back all the way to the primary producer.

Within supply chain mapping, each node in the map can be assessed for possible hazards, followed by strategic planning within the quality management system for identification, mitigation, and elimination of each hazard.

Part of the challenge is that there is not a one size fits all response to risk assessment. If we were the apple sauce manufacturer, how would we assess the risk on the cinnamon? We must use a systems-based approach and multiple directions to comprehensively reduce or eliminate risk.

Supplier verification is common in all HACCP-based food safety management. Performing third-party audits or inspections can be part of that, but can an auditor observe a fraudulent action at the time of occurrence? Certificates of analysis are another important part of risk assessment. Extending blockchain traceability to these certifications could be critical. It’s not uncommon for these certificates to be performed on very low frequency on certain commodities because of the high cost of analysis. I’ve personally seen certificates of analysis results being pushed forward to new lots without new assessments.

Integrity of the transportation and shipping of products is also essential. Purchase orders and bills of lading used to be only text based, but it is now possible to put physical images of shipments into this documentation for identification on receipt. Tamper evident and traceable shipping seals are becoming common. The Use of RFID tagging on shipments is also becoming commonplace, so that shipments travel exactly to the specified destination.

Possible tests

Should we instead focus on incoming goods testing especially to prevent fraud? Cinnamon, for example, is prone to fraudulent substitution by other brown plant materials. DNA fingerprint assessment would the prime method in such cases. However, DNA testing would not pick up lead or other heavy metals contamination that would be measured by atomic emission spectroscopy. Are there better methods such as FTIR, which will speed systems? Each FTIR requires calibration to the commodity, but this could be an important approach. It would be costly to require these assessments on every lot though.

One part of risk assessment is exposure evaluation. It’s not uncommon for companies to look at minor ingredients and validate against the certificate of analysis, then assume that hazard exposure is low because of the dilution effect of ingredients. It’s common to find low levels of lead in commodities from agricultural contamination. In the case of the apple sauce, exposure was higher than assumed because of reliance on convenience food for small children. These affected children were consuming the product with higher than anticipated frequency. Dilution effects for hazard reduction are a slippery slope and should be avoided.

Our perception of risk is changing. In the risk assessment process, piracy, global conflict, climate change and environmental disaster are impacting the integrity of food systems. Using case studies such as the apple sauce recall allows us to plan better for future incidents.

Dr. Amy Proulx is professor and academic program co-ordinator for the Culinary Innovation and Food Technology programs at Niagara College, Ont. She can be reached at aproulx@niagaracollege.ca.

This column was originally published in the April/May 2024 issue of Food in Canada.

The $24.5 million project will see the companies work together to address some of the most pressing challenges facing their industry, including increased global competition, and demands from CPG companies and consumers for taste and ingredient functionality. The consortium will build on their past success with both pea and fava to explore new fava-based ingredients and food products, while creating applications for pea starch and fibre.

More than $24 million will be invested into the project, with the partners investing $13.7 million and Protein Industries Canada investing the remaining $10.7 million. Roquette, the project lead, will focus on improving the efficiency of pea processing while further exploring the development of new ingredients at their facility in Portage la Prairie, Man.

Prairie Fava will work with growers to increase fava bean acres, while working to optimize dehulling technology development for current and new fava varieties. These activities will ensure Prairie Fava is able to supply increasing volumes of dehulled fava splits to Roquette.

From the Prairie Fava splits, Roquette will further process the dehulled fava to achieve high-performing fava protein isolates and co-products, diversifying from pea protein isolates and offering new ingredients to the global market.

Once Roquette has completed their work on testing and scaling-up their fava protein isolate, application and market development will begin. Plant Up will test the fava protein and co-products in their products and will provide Roquette with critical feedback on ingredient functionality and performance in finished food products. Plant Up will also work towards the development of a pea and fava-based alternative chicken whole cut product. This would be the first North American whole cut plant-based chicken offering.

The second aspect of the project will see BioNeutra focus on evaluating domestic sources of starch, the co-product of processing pea flour to make pea protien. Currently reliant on international sources for its starch supply, BioNeutra intends to explore the feasibility of procuring wet starch directly from Roquette. This strategic shift aims to reduce transportation costs and the need for additional starch drying processes, thereby enhancing operational efficiencies for both entities.

Elisabeth Brasseur, Farinart’s VP-sales and innovation, commented, “The integration of Malterie Frontenac into the Farinart group is a significant strategic milestone for our business. The acquisition marks an exciting chapter in the company’s growth and innovation journey. It aligns with our commitment to better anticipate and service the needs of our customers, as well as providing them with exceptional value. With more than 60 per cent of our sales in the U.S. market, we are thrilled to complement our current specialty grain offering with the additional sprouting and malting expertise and capabilities to better meet the demands of this market.”

Founded in 2006 and based in Thetford Mines, Que., Malterie Frontenac originally served craft breweries. However, over time founder and master brewer-maltster, Bruno Vachon, developed a sprouting and malting expertise to meet the needs of bakeries. The company mainly processes local grains such as barley, wheat, rye and oats.

On June 20, 2024, the tribunal will determine whether there is a reasonable indication that the alleged dumping and subsidizing have caused injury or retardation, or are threatening to cause injury, as these words are defined in SIMA. If so, CBSA will continue its investigations and, by July 19, 2024, will make preliminary determinations. If these preliminary determinations indicate that there has been dumping or subsidizing, CBSA will then continue its investigations and, concurrently, the tribunal will initiate a final injury inquiry.

Any interested person, association or government that wishes to participate in the tribunal’s inquiry may do so by filing a Form I – Notice of Participation.

To drive collective action and continued progress toward the company’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across its value chain by 30 per cent by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050, General Mills also released its first Climate Transition Action Plan.

The plan details the company’s integrated approach and evolved decarbonization strategies across four key climate levers — agriculture and ingredients, energy and manufacturing, transportation, and packaging.

General Mills is committing to no deforestation in the supply chains of the palm, cocoa, and fibre it sources by 2025.

The company surpassed its 2030 Scope 1 and Scope 2 SBTi goals in 2022 and is driving further reductions across its owned operations. Nearly half of the company’s GHG emissions occur upstream of its direct operations, in agriculture, ingredients and packaging. Through 2023, General Mills reduced total value chain emissions by seven per cent and further reduced Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 12 per cent compared to last year, and 51 per cent compared to its 2020 baseline.

“The health of our planet and our ability to make food the world loves are inherently intertwined,” said Mary Jane Melendez, chief sustainability and global impact officer, General Mills. “Our Climate Transition Action Plan and continued progress demonstrate how we are working from the ground up, with partners across our value chain and industry, to help solve today’s food and agriculture challenges and build a resilient future.”

For the first time ever, the company reached gender parity at the director level and increased female representation at the officer level by four per cent since last fiscal year.

That’s according to industry experts, including Bill Greuel, CEO of Protein Industries Canada, a not-for-profit that receives funding from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada to invest in plant-based food and ingredient manufacturing.

There’s a lot of work being done in Canada to improve things like the meltability of plant-based cheese and the texture of plant-based meat, said Greuel in an interview at Plant Forward in Toronto, a conference focused on the plant-based food sector.

“Canada’s making great strides,” Greuel said, calling price, taste and texture the “Holy Trinity of consumer needs.”

Inflation and higher interest rates have made consumers more sensitive to price differences, he said, and therefore less willing to try plant-based meat alternatives.

In addition to innovating on the taste and texture side, the industry needs to build up its manufacturing and processing capacity in Canada to help address the price differences between plant-based meat and its conventional counterparts, said Greuel.

“Our belief is that if we create scale in ingredient manufacturing, that’s going to provide more options to food manufacturers, more options to consumers,” he said. “And that’s our path to relieving some of the inflationary pressures in the plant-based food side, is scaling up ingredient manufacturing in the country.”

The economic outlook for the plant-based protein industry was the subject of a presentation at the conference by two speakers from Ernst and Young.

Huzaifa Akhtar, economic advisory vice-president, and Mauricio Zelaya, partner and national economics leader, told conference-goers that businesses in the industry are working on multiple fronts to stay ahead of the curve.

This includes improving existing products and looking into new ones, said Akhtar.

“We’re really seeing that huge push for innovation across the board,” she said.

It’s also important for companies to mitigate potential supply chain disruptions by near-shoring — meaning seeking suppliers closer to the business — and diversifying the sources of their input crops, she said.

Over the longer term, Greuel said there’s still lots of growth predicted for the industry, though not at the steep rate previously thought.

Companies like Beyond Meat were all over the news when they launched products, including in major fast-food chains, that promised to mimic the taste and texture of a beef burger, but the initial excitement has faded in recent years and resulted in a stock price slide.

Ambitions for growth in the plant-based protein industry have been pared back, Greuel said.

“At the start of COVID, we were seeing compound annual growth rate in the double digits,” he said. “Now, we’ve had a market correction, and I think rightfully so.”

Recent estimates are more conservative at about six to eight per cent, he said. “That’s still significant.”

Scaling up manufacturing and processing in Canada is challenging, however, as the projects require a lot of growth capital, said Greuel.

“The cost of an ingredient manufacturing facility is measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars. That’s very hard to finance in the traditional (venture capital) models that we have in Canada,” he said.

“The other issue is that they can’t finance an entire processing facility with debt financing from traditional markets because the cost of debt servicing becomes too high.”

That’s why it’s important to find ways to incentivize more private-sector investment, said Greuel.

Regulations are also a key concern, he added, as it takes much longer in Canada to get novel foods approved versus the U.S. — sometimes several years longer.

While the latest federal budget makes mention of “regulatory sandboxes” to help businesses boost innovation, Greuel said “those are all things we’ve heard before.”

The project builds on the success of Wamame’s first Protein Industries Canada investment, which led to the initial launch of their premium Waygu line. This work also included early stage development of a super high-protein base material, which contains 64 per cent more protein than cooked ground beef and uses a blend of Canadian proteins including pea, fava, and canola.

Throughout the life of the second project, Wamame will develop new and improved high-protein products with ingredients from AGT and Crush Dynamics—ensuring the protein is not only Canadian, but also from environmentally sustainable sources such as wine derivatives that would have traditionally gone to waste. Apex, meanwhile, will increase production of the meat alternatives for international markets.

A total of $6.3 million has been committed to the project, with Protein Industries Canada investing $2.8 million and the partners together investing the remainder.

“Consumers around the world aren’t just looking for diverse sources of protein—they’re looking for high-quality sources of protein,” Protein Industries Canada CEO Bill Greuel said. “Each of these partners has proven they’re capable of creating such products. By coming together, they’ll be able to go even further, creating a line of high-protein foods that families around the world can enjoy.”

The partners marked the launch of the project with a tasting event of the new high-protein line of products in Toronto.

“This marks a new era where alternative meats don’t just meet the nutritional components of animal proteins, but exceed them by a wide margin and do so while tasting great,” Wamame founder and president Blair Bullus said. “With 65 per cent more protein than cooked ground beef, we feel Wamame has truly changed the plant-based protein space. We are so excited to finally share our vision where real chef-inspired food options will out-perform the protein-to-calorie ratio of even protein bars. We would not have been able to get here without the continued support of Protein Industries Canada and the investments they have made in building a stronger plant-protein sector across the country.”

Here is a sampling of what the industry event has in store this year:

RC Show presents a lineup of some of the leading industry experts to discuss the latest bar research and consumer data, the future of spirits and beer, and the evolving role of bartenders and sommeliers. Guests can gain insight from a variety of panels including a beer leadership panel and Canada’s best bars presented by American Express Canada.

Speakers and panelists include:

Andre Hueston Mack, bar keynote speaker, recently proclaimed “one of wine’s most inspiring people,” is a true wine Renaissance Man. After leaving the corporate world and working his way to Head Sommelier at Chef Thomas Keller’s 3 Michelin-starred Per Se restaurant before once again making a radical change and founding Mouton Noir Wines (now Maison Noir).

Michael Tremblay, Founder and SSC Instructor, Sake Scholar, and Nancy Matsumoto, author of the James Beard Award-winning book Rice Water, Earth: Exploring the World of Japanese Craft Sake, present an overview of the basics of sake: what it is, how it is made, and how to serve and drink it, as well as the back story on how the book went from an idea to a published reality.

Scaling of Bar Concepts includes panelists Chantelle Gabino, Beverage Manager, Recipe Unlimited; Robin Goodfellow, Owner, Vela & Little Bones Beverage; and Brian James, CEO, Warm Welcome. The group will engage in a discussion on how growing beyond a single location can be more than a daydream. Sharing tactics and tips for scaling up operations and turning your idea into a solid strategic plan. From changes in decor to tweaks in your bar program, if you’re thinking about expansion, this panel is for you.

Competitions

The Beyond the Rail Competition presented by Beam Suntory, is back hitting the Bar and Beverage Stage on Monday, April 8, from 3 to 5 p.m. This year’s competition focuses on “leveling up” the art of hospitality with Canada’s top bartenders pairing up in teams and being tested on not only their creativity and bartending skills, but also scaling up craft cocktails for large scale events and operations without sacrificing service for a chance to win $5,000.

Hosted by the Canadian Chapter of the Specialty Coffee Association, the RC Show is bringing three national coffee championships to the bar and beverage stage this year. Watch some of Canada’s most talented baristas craft masterpieces in the Latte Art Championship, observe true innovators creating unique coffee cocktails in the Coffee in Good Spirits Competition, and join in making history at Canada’s NEW Cezve/Ibrik Competition. The champions of these events will advance to represent Canada at the World Championships in Copenhagen.

Workshops and masterclasses

RC Show Bar & Beverage Ambassadors Christina Veira and Evelyn Chick are curating sessions and workshops that touch on the state of Canada’s bar and beverage scene. Programming will also include Aperitivo Hour But Make It All Day, Data, Not Vibes: Building Successful LTOs in Coffee, Dairy Farmers of Canada:

Mocktails & Cheese, Exploring Coffee Versatility: A Masterclass, Sake and the Umami Factor, Elevation without Pretension, Whisky and Cheese, Ontario Cider and Corks & Grooves, The Vinyl Revolution In Bars and more.

One-stop pop-up experience

Visit RC’s Pop Up Experience where food and beverage innovation comes alive. Taste, learn and connect through intimate hands-on workshops, savour curated sips and bites, and check out the latest equipment and technology. Inspired by and/ore restaurant’s signature palette and featuring original artwork by artist Tisha Myles of New Love Collective, the RC Pop Up Experience features a visually stunning setup that will immerse guests in an atmosphere of creativity and innovation. Indulge in alcoholic and non-alcoholic creations by renowned mixologist Abigail Rubiales from and/ore, and taste Molson’s newest brew, Madri Exceptional Spanish beer.

Visit the pop-up bars, curated by RC Show’s Beverage Ambassadors Veira and Chick, where you can enjoy drinks and find inspiration from Canada’s leading bartenders. They will present their distinctive methods for crafting menus and blending flavours to create delicious cocktails and mocktails. Featured bars from Canada and the United States include:

• Clive’s Classic Lounge, Victoria
• Bar Bello, Montreal
• Bar Pompette, Toronto
• Keefer Bar, Vancouver
• Happy Accidents, Albuquerque
• Bar Mordecai, Toronto

For more information on this year’s event, visit rcshow.com.

“I think people are becoming more interested in where their food comes from,” said Sophia Carodenuto, a professor of geography at the University of Victoria whose research specializes in global food systems.

The past few years have seen a number of high-profile disruptions including a spike in lettuce prices due to flooding in California, rising orange juice prices because of bad crops and higher wheat prices linked to the Russia-Ukraine war.

These kinds of disruptive events feel like they’re becoming more common, said Graeme Crosbie, senior economist at agriculture lending firm Farm Credit Canada.

Cocoa futures have “gone vertical” this year, especially in the last four or so months, said Crosbie.

Futures are a way of measuring commodity prices based on contracts for future delivery, a common way to track prices for commodities like wheat, gold and oil.

A February report by agriculture-focused co-operative bank CoBank said cocoa prices were nearly 65 per cent higher than a year ago, and New York futures prices were at a 46-year high.

Bad weather and disease in West Africa have damaged crop yields, said Crosbie, hurting supply for the product that goes into Halloween, Valentine’s Day and Easter candy.

“The confection business is going to bear the brunt of the margin impact due to cocoa,” Hershey chief financial officer Steven Voskuil told analysts on a conference call in February.

Most cocoa, especially the cocoa found in many popular chocolate products, comes from West Africa, Carodenuto said. Côte D’Ivoire, which she said produces about 40 per cent of the world’s cocoa, saw a 30 per cent decline in production over the past year due to climate change and disease, she said.

“That’s one of the main drivers of … this huge rise in prices on the commodity markets,” she said.  “I think we’re seeing this all over the world, that the rainy season and the dry season are no longer predictable the way that they had been.”

Unlike some crops, cocoa production is highly concentrated, meaning huge portions of the world’s supply are grown in a handful of areas, said Crosbie. This makes the crop and its supply chain more vulnerable to disruptions.

Cocoa prices don’t directly translate to retail prices, since there are many things other than cocoa that make up a chocolate bar, Crosbie said. But they do have an effect, and he expects retail prices to increase.

According to Statistics Canada inflation data, the price of confectionary items rose more than nine per cent between January 2023 and 2024, compared with overall inflation for food purchased from stores of 3.4 per cent.

Michael Medline, the chief executive of Sobeys parent company Empire Co. Ltd., told investors earlier in March the grocer is seeing “sizable” price increases from some of its suppliers that will “inevitably affect the customer.”

“This is largely driven by some commodities like sugar and cocoa continuing to be very volatile due to ongoing climate and geopolitical factors impacting global supply,” he said.

Higher cocoa prices are an obstacle for manufacturers who have already been struggling with higher sugar prices over the past three years, said senior food and beverage economist Billy Roberts in the CoBank press release.

“That could lead to a further erosion of chocolate volume sales and begin to impact dollar sales as well,” he said.

Consumers are becoming more aware of these kinds of disruptions as food prices have risen across the board, Crosbie said.

“I think people are certainly paying more attention to the prices themselves, and even how their food is produced.”

In a 2021 survey by Deloitte, almost three-quarters of respondents said it’s important for them to understand where their food comes from.
And cocoa is one of many food products that consumers are eyeing more critically.

Cocoa is indigenous to Central America, said Carodenuto, and naturally grows under a canopy of rainforest trees in a diverse ecosystem. But large swaths of rainforest in West Africa have actually been wiped out to make room for cocoa farming, meaning less ecological diversity and more vulnerable crops.

Higher commodity futures also don’t necessarily dictate the prices farmers are being paid in real time, noted Carodenuto.

In Ghana and Côte D’Ivoire, the largest-producing countries for cocoa, the government creates a minimum price for farmers for the season, she said. But the large multinational companies buying and trading cocoa enter into forward contracts, meaning prices are agreed upon in advance.
It takes a lot of manual labour and investment to build a cocoa farm, so farmers need support, especially financially, Carodenuto said.

There’s hope that the higher futures prices will lead to more income next year, but it’s not a guarantee, she added — cocoa prices are cyclical, meaning there will likely be a price crash at some point.

Consumers looking to make ethical spending decisions face a difficult choice, said Carodenuto, especially given the price gap between premium and ethically sourced chocolate and popular, mass-market confections.

Carodenuto said shoppers don’t need to stop buying chocolate, but they should educate themselves and seek supply chain transparency by looking for the origin of the cocoa in a product.

Shoppers who can afford to spend more can also seek out businesses that specialize in sourcing ethical cocoa products, she said.
In the long term, there is lots of potential for cocoa to be grown in a more sustainable manner, she said, but it could mean lower production in the short term.

“It’s just that, who’s going to pay for that? … It shouldn’t be the most marginalized actor in the system. It shouldn’t be the smallholder farmer who has to pay for that.”

— With files from The Associated Press

The Challenge, launched in November 2020, supports high-impact solutions to food waste in Canada. The Business Models Streams focus on business model solutions that can prevent or divert food waste at any point in the food chain, from farm to plate.

“Through important initiatives like the Food Waste Reduction Challenge, we’re working to find effective solutions to reduce food waste on a large scale, so more of the top-quality food our farmers produce doesn’t go to waste and ends up where it belongs – on the kitchen tables of Canadian families. Congratulations to Loop Mission and Still Good for your work to develop cutting-edge solutions to help tackle food waste in Canada,” said Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food.

Loop Mission is a Montreal-based circular economy company that creates products from food that would otherwise go to waste, like cold-pressed juice. The company leveraged its expertise to create Loop Synergies—a line of ingredients made from rejected food, that would otherwise be wasted, that food processors can easily integrate into diverse food products. With support from the Challenge, Loop Mission will scale its Loop Synergies line, enabling more food processors to join the movement to reduce food waste in Canada.

“Loop Mission is well aware of the scale of food waste in Canada, which is why we have created a collaborative movement to mobilize the food industry in support of food waste reduction. Thanks to this award, we will be able to intensify our efforts and continue to innovate by developing revalourized ingredients that can be adapted to meet the needs of the industry. We are honoured by this recognition and look forward to multiplying our impact,” said Julie Poitras-Saulnier, co-founder and CEO, Loop Mission.

Based in Montreal, Still Good develops business solutions for companies to transform nutrient-rich by-products that would otherwise go to waste to new food products, through a holistic approach called eco-valuation. For example, Still Good developed technology to turn spent brewers’ grain from local microbreweries into flour, which is high in protein, fibre and essential minerals. With support from the Challenge, Still Good will scale its business model to create eco-valuation or upcycling hubs across Canada. This will allow food processors to build on and replicate this solution to reduce food waste.

“Thank you to AAFC and the members of the external review committee for recognizing the qualities of our business model and salute the work of all the finalists. This recognition will certainly enable us to promote the countless opportunities available to catalyze the creation of innovative projects aimed at transforming food residues, helping companies achieve their ESG objectives, and consolidating our research and development efforts,” said Jonathan Rodrigue, co-founder and CEO, Still Good.

Loop Mission and Still Good will each receive a grand prize of up to $1.5 million to grow and scale their food waste solutions.

Burcon will be offering hemp protein isolate, sunflower protein isolate and sunflower protein concentrate. In partnership with Burcon, HPS will assess hemp crop varieties to determine which are best suited for the new ingredients, while also developing, commercializing and scaling the technology needed to process the hemp into above-mentioned ingredients. Further along the value chain, Puratos and Burcon will each focus on using the hemp and sunflower ingredients in new food and beverage products, particularly baking applications, beverages and meat alternatives.

“The development of new ingredients and food manufacturing is integral to growing and strengthening Canada’s agrifood sector. Increasing ingredient manufacturing can help diversify our agriculture sector and increase our productivity, creating new economic growth for Canada,” Protein Industries Canada CEO Bill Greuel said. “Together, Burcon, HPS and Puratos are developing a line of ingredients, food and beverage products that will do this, while also bringing new, diverse protein options to market.”

A total of $6.9 million has been committed to the project, with Protein Industries Canada committing $3 million and the partners together committing the remainder.

This is in response to Health Canada’s consultation request about its proposal to modernize regulatory frameworks governing food additives and compositional standards, microbiological criteria and methods of analysis for food.

In their response, the associations voice support to “proposed changes that would repeal the food compositional standards from the Food and Drugs Regulations and move them into a Food Compositional Standards Document, which would be incorporated by reference into the Food and Drugs Regulations on an ambulatory basis.”

However, they urge the federal government to adopt a co-development approach for fostering a more inclusive, transparent, and effective decision-making process.

They also request the government to consider exempting naturally occurring contaminants from paragraph 4(1)(a) of the Food and Drugs Act, as “grain products naturally contain certain contaminants that are inherent to the environment.”

“Our request is grounded in the premise that these contaminants, similarly to microorganisms found in food, are inevitable and, within a tolerable limit, pose no harm to human health,” the joint submission said.

The associations recommend new compositional standards for semolina and durum flour and whole grain whole wheat flour in order to distinguish it from whole wheat flour. They also recommend removing Vitamin B White Flour (Canada Approved) from the list of compositional standards, as it has become obsolete.

To read the full submission, click here.

“By bolstering the cultivation and processing of fava beans for use in Canadian ingredients and food, this project will increase the selection of healthy and sustainable food options for Canadians,” said François-Philippe Champagne, innovation, science and industry minister. “Projects like these show how Protein Industries Canada and its partners’ innovative approaches to food will not only increase Canadians’ access to nutritious options, but also build stronger and more resilient supply chains in Canada and abroad.”

As a crop growing in both acreage and use in plant-based products, fava is an ideal option for innovative work in the ingredient and finished goods market. Prairie Fava is building on this by growing DL Seeds’ fava varieties and then utilizing them in their patented processing methods, testing them for functionality and feeding information back to DL Seeds in order to inform new variety development. They’ll then supply Three Farmers with fava ingredients for further functionality testing in Three Farmers’ line of snack foods.

“Prairie Fava, DL Seeds and Three Farmers have taken a full value chain approach to strengthening the fava bean supply chain and market in Canada—an approach that’s needed if we’re going to make Canada truly competitive in the global plant protein space,” said Protein Industries Canada CEO Bill Greuel. “By working together across the ecosystem, crop breeders, ingredient manufacturers and food processors can capture the growing global protein opportunity, while providing consumers with a variety of healthy, high-protein snack options.”

The development of each the new varieties, ingredients and finished products will strengthen the supply of fava beans in the Canadian market, helping meet the rising demand for new sources of sustainable protein. The project will also enable each company to scale its product offerings and operations, including at Three Farmers’ recently opened facility in Saskatoon. Together, the partners will create new jobs and new opportunities for Canadians.

A total of $13.2 million has been committed to the project, with Protein Industries Canada investing $5.4 million and the partners investing the remainder.

“Three Farmers is thrilled to embark on this journey with our new Protein Industries Canada consortium, dedicated to amplifying production and innovation in the realm of fava beans as a value-added food item. We remain committed to enhancing the agricultural landscape of the prairies, continuously adding value to crops and fostering growth for our communities,” said Three Farmers founder and CEO Natasha Vandenhurk.

The total project will see $19.2 million invested into R&D related to ingredient manufacturing and the creation of new food products, with Protein Industries Canada investing $7.3 million. During the project, Avena will further optimize and refine specialty-milled oat and pulse flours, while also creating specialty-milled pulse grits, meals and flours that match each customer’s unique processes. These minimally processed ingredients will be used to reformulate and develop new consumer-ready food products that are nutritious and made from clean-label and sustainably sourced oat and pulse ingredients.

“Investment into ingredient manufacturing is an untapped economic opportunity for Canada, and this project is an example of what is possible when we take our widely available Canadian crops such as pulses and oats to create new ingredients and food,” said Bill Greuel, CEO of Protein Industries Canada. “With the scale-up of ingredient processing, we can produce ingredients with enhanced functionality that can better meet the demand of consumers when it comes to taste, texture and nutritional benefits.”

Old Dutch, Danone and Big Mountain Foods will use the optimized new ingredients from Avena to create new snack options and reformulated products, including yogurt, plant-based beverages and creamers, veggie links, cutlets, pastries, fillings and non-soy/non-fava tofu products.

“Avena welcomes this investment from Protein Industries Canada, and the opportunity to work collaboratively with our customers. Our goal is to provide exactly what they need from our deck of functional and nutritious oat and pulse ingredients, and to further support them with sustainability metrics, such as life cycle assessment for our ingredients,” said Wayne Arsenault, CEO of Avena Foods.

“Big Mountain Foods is on an exciting journey into the realm of foodservice, marking a historic milestone for our brand. With the invaluable support of Protein Industries Canada, we are poised to revolutionize the culinary landscape by crafting offerings tailored for the diverse needs of large institutions, including hospitals, long-term care facilities, restaurants, universities, and beyond. This expansion not only showcases our commitment to innovation but also underlines our dedication to providing wholesome, plant-based solutions that redefine the standards of nourishment in institutional settings. Together, we’re cooking up a future where everyone can savour the goodness of Big Mountain Foods, one custom creation at a time,” said Jasmine Byrne, COO, Big Mountain Foods.

“Danone Canada’s mission is to bring health through food to as many people as possible, so we are thrilled to be part of this project with Avena Foods, which will allow us to produce even more healthy and sustainable products locally. This collaboration will facilitate access to cutting-edge technology in plant-based ingredient production – allowing us to continue delivering on our promise of offering innovative and quality options for consumers,” said Pierre Morin, Danone Canada vice-president of research & innovation.

“Old Dutch Foods is committed to our ‘Quality Lives Here’ claim beyond traditional snack categories blending quality, taste, and innovative ingredients to build snacks that transcend expectations adding new benefits for consumers. We are proud to share 70 years of innovation with Canadians and this partnership fuels continued development of products like those in our Project Nice portfolio,” said Scott Kelemen, sr. national director brand and market strategy, Old Dutch Foods.

Irwin D. Simon, executive chair of the company, said, “Following a comprehensive review of strategic alternatives, we are pleased to announce this transaction today, which we believe to be in the best interest of all our shareholders, providing them with the most compelling outcome in terms of maximizing value while offering immediate liquidity at a significant premium. From the beginning of this process, the special committee’s top priority has been to deliver an optimal outcome for all our shareholders, customers, and employees, and we believe we have achieved that with this transaction.”

Going forward, Ozark Holdings intends to do business as Sweet Oak Parent.

With this project, Konscious Foods will advance the fortification and commercialization of its existing products, as well as develop an extended range of new offerings out of its 34,000-sf facility in Richmond, B.C., by using pulse ingredients sourced from Avena in the Prairies, as well as CPS’ locally sourced seaweed. Konscious Foods will also evaluate pulses and grains from other Canadian suppliers and work with multiple universities to enhance the nutritional profile of ingredients and products.

“The innovation showcased by Konscious Foods and its partners is what differentiates Canada in this growing market space. Our ability to have ingredient processors – in this case, Avena – who work directly with farmers, and then loop back to the food processors, is the benefit of Canada’s uniquely integrated value chain,” CEO of Protein Industries Canada Bill Greuel said. “This connection and collaboration, along with the support of the Global Innovation Clusters program, is supporting innovation at an accelerated rate, leading to more successful Canadian companies, the building of new facilities, and the development of new IP that is being commercialized in Canada.”

This project will launch new products like nori and tamagoyaki plant-based egg. Konscious Food’s will also improve the nutritional content of its existing seafood-alternative products, including increased protein and vitamin integration of Omega-3 fatty acids. The total value of this project is $5.1 million, with Protein Industries Canada investing up to $2.3 million and the consortium investing the remainder.

“We are grateful for our continued partnership and investment of Protein Industries Canada as we march onwards towards our goal of bringing good-for-you, good-for-the-planet alternatives to the masses,” said Yves Potvin, founder and president of Konscious Foods. “Widespread adoption of plant-based foods is simply impossible if we don’t focus on food that tastes good, is made of healthy high-quality ingredients, and is affordable. Protein Industries Canada is connecting our culinary and technical knowledge with locally sourced, best-in-class ingredient partners to advance our mission of transforming how people eat.”

Avena will supply Konscious with new pulse-based ingredients to incorporate into their existing products. As well, through proprietary milling methods, Avena will supply functional pulse ingredients that mimic conventional egg to be used in a plant-based Japanese-style omelet (Tamagoyaki).

“Konscious Foods is known for innovation. Avena is excited to be a partner offering pulse ingredient solutions that will help Konscious to develop innovative plant-based seafood products for this fast-growing market segment,” said Avena CEO Wayne Arsenault.

CPS will focus developing a locally sourced nori product, working with local B.C. farmers to select different types of seaweeds for testing and evaluation, from seedstock to growing and harvesting.

“At Canadian Pacifico Seaweeds, we’re honoured to be guided by a pioneering Japanese company, renowned for its innovation in nori snacks,” founder and CEO of CPS Majid Hajibeigy said. “Their expertise sets the gold standard in nori production, enriching our efforts to craft a locally sourced nori product in collaboration with Coastal B.C. farmers. With sustainability at the forefront, we’re charting a course towards an eco-friendly, efficient and non-hazardous alternative extraction method. This partnership underscores our joint commitment to excellence in seaweed cultivation, ensuring a premium, locally produced product for BC and beyond.”

Serial entrepreneur Aviv Wolff and Dr. Ori Cohavi, who holds a PhD in biochemistry and has worked in R&D at a variety of biotech firms, founded Remilk because of “a shared dedication to reinvent dairy, by removing cows from the milk-making process.” Canada is the fourth country after the U.S., Singapore and Israel to approve Remilk’s product.

Through an e-interview, Wolff, Remilk’s co-founder and CEO, shared that Health Canada’s approval process was extensive and thorough.

“We met with Health Canada’s team and provided them with the data they requested, which was used for a rigorous examination of our protein’s safety and similarity to cow-derived milk protein. We are thrilled and honoured to have received the Letter of No Objections attesting to both,” said Wolff.

“Health Canada’s acceptance of our animal-free protein is additional validation of its safety and purity. Canada’s is the fourth separate health administration to conduct thorough examinations of our protein and each, individually, found it to be equivalent to its traditional counterpart,” added Dr. Cohavi, co-founder and CTO at Remilk, through a media statement. “Regulatory approvals serve to not only open new markets for the sale of our proteins, but also as reassurance for both industry and consumers that our protein is the same milk protein they have been consuming and enjoying for decades.”

This approval marks a significant milestone for Canada’s foodtech sector, which is very much in its infancy. It also opens the door for many new novel ingredients to enter the Canadian market.

“This milestone not only propels Canada into the forefront of sustainable food solutions, but also signals a transformative era in our food supply. This approval paves the way for a more resilient and eco-friendly future, setting a precedent for innovation in Canada’s approach to feeding its growing population,” said Dana McCauley, CEO, Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN).

Aviv Wolff

The Remilk team sees great potential in the Canadian market and its consumers who are actively seeking healthy, nutritious food options.

“Remilk’s animal-free protein enables the production of craveable products that will allow Canadian consumers to indulge in the same experience of tase and texture they love, with added health benefits, such as no lactose, cholesterol and hormones. As for food companies, it’s important to many North American-based companies to be able to offer products in both U.S. and Canada. We can now provide that to them,” explained Wolff.

Remilk uses a patented approach to manufacture its protein at commercial scale in several locations around the world. However, precision fermentation is an energy-intensive process. The overall environmental impact of the process is unclear. I asked Wolff about this.

“We’ve recently completed our life-cycle analysis (LCA), conducted by an external consulting firm, following our entire production process from ‘cradle-to-gate’ or from the footprint of our raw materials to our final product: BLG milk-protein powder. As per LCA best-practice guidelines, we will only publish our results once we complete the process of independent peer review of the report.

“Without sharing specific numbers, we can already say our LCA reveals substantial reduction in resource usage of water and land, and a substantial decrease in greenhouse gas emission compared to cow-milk protein production. As for energy, the advantage of industrial production lies both in our ability to choose manufacturing locations and our control over every aspect of the process. We carefully choose locations that allow for green energy usage and fine-tune our process to ensure maximum efficiency in every phase. Furthermore, precision fermentation allows for rapid improvements in yield which, in turn, improve resource usage even further,” he clarified.

Despite the lack of clarity on Remilk’s carbon footprint, the approval is a historic one for Canada’s food and beverage manufacturing industry. It offers manufacturers and consumers an alternative to traditional dairy without losing the nutritional benefits associated with cow milk-based products.

The Vancouver refinery employs approximately 140 unionized workers.

“We believe this agreement meets the needs of the employees and the organization, and it enables us to serve our customers, increase output and meet growing demand for our product,” said Mike Walton, president and CEO of Rogers Sugar. “We are pleased that the workers at our Vancouver refinery have ratified this agreement, and we look forward to returning to full production in Vancouver to support our customers in Western Canada.”

The Vancouver refinery is operated by Lantic, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rogers Sugar.

The changes come after in-depth examination of the current programs, including reviewing initial results and gathering extensive client feedback. Revisions include an expansion of eligibility criteria as well as an increase in available funds.

“NPC has always focused on filling real gaps for Canadian developers of natural products and solutions,” says Shelley King, CEO. “Our team’s approach to truly understanding the needs of the founders and their growth plans was an essential driver for these revisions.”

The changes impact two of NPC’s most utilized programs:

1) The Access to Talent Program, which helps innovative companies build out critical parts of their teams, now incorporates two streams to accommodate roles that require both medium and senior experience; and

2) The Proof of Concept Program, which supports the commercial validation of high innovation products, increases its maximum contribution to $350,000.

NPC will be hosting a series of regional webinars to review these changes.

These charts track flavour adoption and evolution around the world and provide an in-depth analysis of the ingredients and trends that will shape innovation in the food and beverage sector over the year ahead. The charts are an online resource that can be mined by product and menu developers worldwide.

To illustrate today’s incredible pace of innovation, Kerry researchers also conducted a deep dive into the lifecycles of two long-popular heritage flavours — orange and chocolate — and examined how these mainstream ingredients are now exploding into all manner of inventive product offerings around the world. These two case studies illustrate clearly how many traditional tastes worldwide are now fusing into new, innovative applications as product creators around the globe source, combine and recombine flavours and spices from distant origins into exciting new taste experiences.

Soumya Nair, global consumer research and insights director at Kerry, commented on the 2024 taste charts: “The global exchange and dissemination of tastes and flavours through social media and travel is still in its infancy, and globalization in food, beverage and cuisine development make this a truly exciting time to be in the industry. Although rapidly changing times can present great challenges, they also provide an unparalleled opportunity for brands to catch an emerging trend on the rise. We are seeing many unique flavour intersections in foods and beverages.”

Examples of some of the insights noted in this year’s charts include the following:

• Increasingly inventive crossovers of international cuisines are being seen, such as the innovative blends of Filipino and American dishes happening in the U.S., with Halo-Halo inspired cocktails, ube burgers, and adobo chicken sandwiches appearing on menus.
• Spice – literal and figurative – is being added to a wide range of more everyday foods, providing a dash of excitement, and a new sensation. From the now common-place spicy cocktails, everything from spicy chocolate and spicy honey to spicy sparkling waters are also being seen; with products often utilizing new and interesting spice ingredients, such as arbol peppers, gochugaru, and tajin seasoning.
• Young consumers are craving bold and unusual flavour combinations, driven by social media’s influence and a desire for novelty. This opens opportunities for sweet-savoury pairings like bacon milkshakes, coffee infused with black garlic, and chocolate bars with wasabi.
• Some very familiar flavours, such as orange, are getting a new look, with varietal and floral twists. Health considerations spurred by the pandemic also provided this source of vitamin C with a renewed wave of consumer appreciation.
• As always, people remain open to new experiences. Fruits such as yuzu are gaining popularity across multiple markets and applications, with recent launches including Yuzu Gose Beers in South Africa, Yuzu and Pepper Mayonnaise in China, and Yuzu Low ABV wines and alcoholic beverages in the USA and Australia.

To access the 2024 Kerry Taste Charts for the region of your choice, please click here.

The revamped website, accessible at www.flavorcan.ca, offers a user-friendly interface that allows visitors to explore the company’s portfolio of flavours and services.

“We are excited to introduce our new website, which reflects Flavorcan’s passion for flavor innovation and our commitment to delivering exceptional products and services to our clients worldwide,” said Brad Gorassi, president at Flavorcan. “The website is not just a digital presence, it’s a window into the world of flavorus, showcasing our capabilities and inviting visitors to explore the possibilities that come with partnering with Flavorcan.”

Jared Simon, president of Manitoba Harvest, said, “Celebrating 10 years as a Certified B Corporation with our highest score to date is a testament to our entire organization’s unwavering commitment to social responsibility and sustainable practices. It reflects the collective efforts of our team and our enduring dedication to making a positive impact in every aspect of our business.”

In order to achieve and maintain B Corp Certification, companies must:

Demonstrate high social and environmental performance by achieving a B Impact Assessment score of 80 or above and exhibit transparency by publicly making information about their performance available on B Lab U.S. & Canada’s website.

Sarah Ford, associate director of recertification for B Lab U.S. & Canada, said, “We congratulate Manitoba Harvest on achieving a remarkable recertification score and for being B Corp Certified for a decade. Companies like Manitoba Harvest show how businesses can have a positive impact by prioritizing social and environmental responsibility.”

The new refinery, at an estimated investment of $135 million, is expected to have an annual refining capacity of 1 million metric tonnes.

“The sugar markets in both Canada and the United States are experiencing steady, long term, sustainable growth, and Sucro is investing to supply these growing market demands,” said Jonathan Taylor, founder and CEO of Sucro Sourcing. “We have a customer base that is loyal and growing, benefiting from the new competition we are bringing to the market. Despite steady demand from an expanding food processing sector, overall refining capacity in both Canada and the United States has been stagnant for years, especially in Ontario, where the demand for sugar is growing at one of the fastest rates in North America.”

Sucro Can’s focus on improving its customers’ supply chains is a key reason for choosing the Port of Hamilton as the location for its new refinery.

“HOPA Ports is thrilled to be working with Sucro Can to make this historic investment a reality,” said Ian Hamilton, president and CEO of HOPA Ports. “We worked closely with Sucro Can to understand its location and logistics needs, and those of its customers. The new refinery in the heart of southern Ontario’s food processing cluster, has access to marine, rail and highway transportation options. The facility’s new capacity and reliability will give Ontario food processors the confidence to invest in their own operations. For us this is a huge win: driving a resilient and efficient supply chain, growing the economy and creating jobs.”

Lars Asferg, president of Lallemand Bio-Ingredients, said, “Evolva offers us a strong strategic fit with our yeast-based technology platform. Evolva’s proprietary precision fermentation technology and R&D capabilities present an ideal platform from which to expand our product offering.”

“It’s a company that started with the idea of bringing hot chocolate to all families in Colombia, but [the idea was] also to see how through that product, and through developing hot chocolate, they could also bring development and well-being to cocoa-growing, rural families in Colombia,” said Marcela Jaramillo, VP of marketing for Luker Chocolate, a 120-year-old family-owned business.

Fine flavoured cocoa

When we think of Columbian crops, cocoa might not be top of mind. But Colombia is the 10^th largest cocoa producer in the world. It produced 62,000 tons in 2022. What sets the country apart is that 95 per cent of the country’s cocoa for export is fine flavour cocoa. A special quality classification designated by the International Cocoa Organization, fine flavour cocoas have nutty, floral, or even fruity flavour profiles and is ideal for chocolates.

“[This cocoa] allows us to develop dark chocolates, for example, an 85 or 90 per cent, and still taste all the aromas and flavours that we love about chocolate, without having to add too much to the chocolate,” said Jaramillo.

Cocoa farming is also a safe and sustainable alternative to illicit activities such as drug trafficking and the violence that goes along with it. Remote and isolated, Colombia’s countryside and cocoa-growing regions have been especially affected by the 50 years of narco trafficking.

“Cocoa is a great income option for communities that live in lower altitude areas where illegal crops are grown. So, cocoa is a strong option to also drive peace in the countryside,” added Jaramillo.

Luker’s portfolio includes everything from 90 per cent dark chocolates to 36 per cent white chocolates.

Global footprint

In 2005, Luker expanded from hot chocolate to a line of couverture chocolates that are used by manufacturers to produce a wide range of products like baked goods and ice creams. Luker’s heritage recipe portfolio includes everything from 90 per cent dark chocolates to 36 per cent white chocolates.

Exporting to 40 countries, Luker Chocolates’ ingredients are used by manufacturers like GoodSam Foods, Petit Pot, and Lacey’s (Desserts On Us). The company employs more than 600 people with offices in Europe, the U.K., the U.S., and Colombia. Luker entered the U.S. market in 2008 and Canada in 2015. It  acquired  a  majority stake in Lyra group in 2022, a leading Slovakian chocolate manufacturer. Last year, Luker’s net revenue was over $110 million.

Private label

In 2008-09, Luker launched a private label division that now produces custom bars, snacks, chocolate-covered fruits and nuts, and a hot chocolate stick. Serving around 12 per cent of their total sales, the private label is manufactured in Colombia and in the recently acquired production facility in Slovakia. These facilities are certified BASC and FSCC2200, as well as offer kosher and non-GMO options. Jaramillo believes in “really working with brands to see how we can grow together and help them grow and find those business objectives that they have.”

New initiatives

In 2021, Luker launched an oat beverage-based chocolate. It was challenging to capture the indulgence and creaminess of the traditional line with novel ingredients, but after many trials and errors, they managed to formulate an oat beverage-based chocolate that mirrors dairy chocolate in taste and texture.

Other innovations include working with coconut sugar and creating sugar-free alternatives to cater to health-conscious consumers. In recent years, Luker has also been selling single-origin (i.e. country, region, estate) chocolates. Like wine, Jaramillo noted that each region provides a different flavour profile for the chocolate.

Traceability

While many companies have adopted sustainable practices, Luker Chocolates takes it one step further. In 2018, Luker signed the Cocoa and Peace initiative that prevents deforestation in cocoa-growing regions. Chocolate Dream, launched in 2018, teaches farmers how to protect local biodiversity, avoid water contamination and ensure responsible use of natural resources.

With a holistic approach to sustainability, Luker is also working to improve the lives of their workers. By 2027, the company is aiming to boost the incomes of 1,500 farmers by 20 per cent. They aim to do so by supporting education, gender-focused entrepreneurship, and reinforcing the human rights of 5,000 families. They are also working to achieve 90 per cent adherence to the Women’s Empowerment Principles, and in 2022, they changed policies emphasizing gender equality and fair pay for women.

Currently, all their cocoa can be traced to the first purchasing point, which the team at Luker says is crucial to ensure farmers are paid fairly and crops are grown sustainably. By 2027, Luker aims to conserve 5,000 hectares of land in the regions of Necocli, Tumaco, Huila, Casanare, Sur de Bolivar and Caldas. The company is well on its way to achieving this goal, as last year they protected 2,670 hectares by documenting the whole supply chain, demonstrating farmer’s payments and geo-referencing images. It plans to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2030. Having already achieved carbon neutrality across all their operations (including their farms), they are now tracking their carbon footprint and the footprint of their suppliers.

Sustainability

Recently, Luker earned B-Corp certification, a designation that highlights the company’s high social and environmental performance. The certification is a commitment not just to earning a profit but to their workers, the community, and the environment. Additionally, initiatives like the Chocolate Dream anchor their sustainability plans through a collaborative approach to sustainability and social well-being.

This article was originally published in the November/December 2023 issue of Food in Canada.

NPC’s contributions will enable a total of $3.1 million in strategic initiatives designed to help each client tackle the critical next step in their commercialization journey. The latest announcement includes start-ups and research institutes from across the country, including F&B-related companies such as AltaGreen, Climicals, Enhanced Medical Nutrition, Infusd Nutrition, New Protein International, and Opalia.

AltaGreen

Program: Fast Track to Financing

Project Budget: $62,500

NPC Contribution: $25,000

AltaGreen has created hemp-based poultry feed that delivers high-quality omega fatty acids, plant protein and other phytonutrients that play crucial roles in promoting optimal health and growth.

Climicals

Program: Fast Track to Financing

Project Budget: $12,735

NPC Contribution: $5,094

Climicals has developed an innovative process of converting sugars leftover from the food industry into valuable bio-based chemicals for the flavour and fragrance markets.

Enhanced Medical Nutrition (EMN)

Program: Fast Track to Financing

Project Budget: $66,000

NPC Contribution: $25,000

Enhanced Medical Nutrition (EMN) is a transformative food-as-medicine company with an evidence-based nutrition program to help patients prepare better and recover faster from surgery.

New Protein International

Program: Proof of Concept

Project Budget: $417,168

NPC Contribution: $250,000

New Protein International will produce the cleanest-label soy protein isolate in the world. Its proprietary clean technology removes the petrochemical hexane, a known carcinogen, from the production process.

Opalia

Program: Proof of Concept

Project Budget: $625,000

NPC Contribution: $250,000

Opalia is one of the world’s first companies to develop a technology to make real milk without cows. This creates sustainable, animal-free milk, eliminating any production issues for dairy product manufacturers.

“Natural Products Canada is proud to support these breakthrough technologies that showcase Canada’s remarkable capacity for natural product innovation,” said Shelley King, CEO, Natural Products Canada. “By investing in these innovative solutions, NPC is accelerating the growth of sustainable companies and products across a range of industries, and contributing to the health and well-being of our communities.”

NPC’s Commercialization Programs focus on three gaps commonly found in highly innovative companies: product validation, talent, and competitive strategy. The Proof of Concept, Access to Talent, and Fast Track to Financing programs address each of these gaps, and provide up to $250,000 in support. Clients typically benefit from NPC’s extensive advice and guidance before, during and after applying for programs, ensuring maximum impact of NPC as a source of ‘smart capital’.

“With Canada’s food manufacturing industry experiencing strong growth, we recognized the importance of increasing our production to meet the escalating demands of our valued customers,” said Cyril Ryan, senior vice-president of Redpath Sugar. “This capacity expansion is a testament to our commitment to being at the forefront of providing high-quality sugar products and maintaining the trust that our customers have placed in us for 170 years.”

In the world of food choices, 2022 was marked by contractions in the valuations of big-name plant-based brands. Private investors re-circled with greater caution in due diligence, assessing unique selling propositions, and how products contribute to unmet consumer needs. Start-ups, scale-ups, legacy CPGs, and their suppliers are in deep iteration mode to meet these complex market aspirations.

Adding to the broader equation is the perceived dichotomy between animal- and plant- based diets. The relatively subtle rise of flexitarian diets is a broader marketplace consideration. Flexitarians represent a larger segment of consumers than vegetarians and vegans alone. Further, flexitarians don’t seem to compromise on taste, texture, pleasure, or expected value in price points. Likely we are seeing some of the continued fallout of this in 2023, with market adjustments, post-hype in 2022.

Heme can produce colour intensity, and ‘bleed’ in plant-based burger patties. Photo © Bill / Adobe Stock

New ingredients

By way of specific examples, globally competitive companies are pursuing food ingredient formulations to address specific needs in the market. Collagen, for example, adds texture and unique mouthfeel in food applications (currently largely produced from meat industry by-products). Companies like Canada’s Liven Proteins are seeking to produce collagen at greater scale through precision fermentation. Whey protein, another important ingredient in a range of dairy products, (traditionally sourced from bovine milk), is being produced at a growing scale by U.S.-based Perfect Day. Significant energy is being committed to food ingredients sourced from mycoproteins (from mushrooms, mycelia, and fungi), and from algal-based powders and oils, by Canadian companies like Smallfood and Mara, for nutritional food supplementation.

Colour also matters in food purchase decisions, as does its ‘naturalness’, and clean label, not an easy balancing act. An example of this is with ‘heme’, derived from either plants or animals, and developed by different alternative protein companies. Heme can produce colour intensity, and ‘bleed’ in plant-based burger patties. Currently, there is an ongoing legal dispute between Impossible Foods and Motif FoodWorks over production process claims in the application of heme.

Global competition in the food ingredients market is surging out of traditionally strong ecosystems in Germany, France, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Japan, and Korea to name a few. Companies like Givaudan, IFF, Firmenich, DSM, McCormick, Lesaffre, Novozymes, Chr. Hansen, Griffith, Caldic and Ajinomoto are some of the leading providers of food ingredients meeting new expectations in the subtle art and science of food product formulation. So, where does this leave Canada?

Advantage Canada

In 2022, Canadian food and beverage exports grew at a healthy pace, at 14 per cent year-over-year, but food and beverage imports also increased, up 18 per cent. Changing multicultural demographics in Canada means international food imports are up. According to a recent Farm Credit Canada (FCC) report, expectations for 2023 are that grain and oilseed milling and meat product manufacturing will outperform plant-based protein products, seasonings, dressings. The report added that demand remains strong for ‘affordable, convenient, and sustainably produced foods’, and there is ‘strong demand for flour and edible oils from downstream food and beverage manufacturers.’ Specific to dairy alternatives, oat prices are down 40 per cent, which could make oat-made food alternatives more competitively priced.

Canada’s advantage lies in a traditionally strong land and natural resource base to source raw ingredients from farms, marine ecosystems, and forests. Canada is a leading producer of peas, lentils, flax, hemp, and oats, which increasingly is translating into value-added products such as protein isolates, starches, concentrates, flours, and fibres that are essential for a new generation of products. These lend themselves well to export markets seeking protein-rich foods.

Strong advances in the Canadian food ingredient sector have been driven by the government-backed efforts of Protein Industries Canada and Plant-based Foods of Canada that foster innovation in the ecosystem, especially over the past decade. Companies such as France-based Roquette Foods’ investment in Manitoba, as well as the establishment of Phyto Organix Foods and More Than Protein Ingredients (both in Alberta), are testament to ongoing efforts in plant-based food ingredient creation. It is also important to acknowledge industry challenges, such as Winnipeg-based Merit Functional Foods going into receivership in first half of 2023. A surge of effort by food ingredient companies, old and new including Ardra Bio, Genuine Taste, Mara, Bartek, Biofect Innovations, and Lallemand, are further evidence of an attuned industry seeking to bring valuable and functional ingredients to the marketplace, especially with the power of fermentation (both traditional and precision-based).

These providers will need to conform to the diversity of consumer and business needs in export markets, whether in functionality such as emulsification, stabilizing, texture, colour, or flavour enhancement. If Canadian companies are to thrive, they need to understand these subtle nuances. Realizing these objectives with trading partners in both developed and emerging markets across the Americas, the E.U. and Asia, requires agile ecosystems, supply chain partners, government co-ordination, financing, and university and college researchers astute to market segments. Canada also needs to protect its reputation in food safety, traceability, and lend itself to articulating this among the health, pricing, and sustainability drivers of today’s food sector.

Mark Juhasz is CEO and founder of Harvest Insights. He has more than 20 years of experience in the agri-food industry. He can be reached at www.harvestinsights.com.

This article was originally published in the October 2023 issue of Food in Canada.