Taste great and be nutritionally superior
PG. 10
Rising demand for plant proteins open new export markets for pulse processors PG. 14
INSIDE:PET FOOD IN CANADA PG. 17
INNA SHEKHTMAN OF RED DOG BLUE KAT BELIEVES RAW FOOD IS THE BEST FOR PETS
It’s ingrained in us
No matter how the world’s challenges evolve, we’re leading with a passion for service and solutions. That means expanding our portfolio of flours, grains and pulses while investing in innovative processes. It means focusing on sustainable farming practices and connecting people for success. Partnering with us can help grow value for you and our communities. Together, we’ll transform how the world is nourished.
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Higher wages will not solve labour issues: RBC report
According to a recent RBC Economics report by Nathan Janzen and Rannella Billy-Ochieng’, labour shortages are going to worsen. According to them, more than 870,000 jobs are currently vacant in Canada, and more than one-third of businesses are grappling with labour shortages. While labour shortage is not a new problem, it is not an easy one to solve. “Businesses were reporting acute labour shortages in some sectors prior to the pandemic. Since 2008/09, an aging workforce has subtracted one million workers from the economy. Longer-run demographic forces will continue to weigh on labour force participation as waves of baby boomers reach typical retirement age,” explain the report’s authors.
In the travel and hospitality sectors, the current employment shortfall is the largest when compared to prepandemic levels. Janzen and BillyOchieng’ say roughly 23 per cent of the working age population is expected to be 65 years or older by 2024. This is up from 20.5 per cent in 2019 and 15 per cent two decades ago. It is believed retirements will remove around 600,000 workers from the labour market pool over the next three years.
The pandemic has exacerbated the issue. “While it delayed retirements, it has made the future wave of exits from the labour force larger. It also boosted asset prices, providing more financial security for some households considering retirement,” say the authors.
Advantage employees
According to Janzen and BillyOchieng’, the labour squeeze is expected to increase wages. Further, other benefits, such flex hours, would be critical as firms seek to retain or hire employees. Businesses are also investing in technology that would boost productivity.
The report’s authors feel Canadians are more confident about their employment prospects. They cite a recent Bank of Canada (BoC) survey, where more workers signalled a willingness to quit their current jobs. While that’s a positive sign from an employee’s perspective, it is a challenge for businesses trying to retain and hire workers.
However, workers’ wage expectations haven’t changed much even though the shortages have put them in a strong bargaining position. According to the BoC survey, workers are, looking for more “suitable hours.”
“Those contending with child and elder care are seeking greater autonomy in work scheduling. Indeed, the most resilient industries through the pandemic have been in professional, scientific, and technical fields where working from home is easier. So, while higher wages will be part of the equation, firms looking to hire from within a limited talent pool will also need to place emphasis, where possible, on more holistic employment offerings,” explain the authors.
Nithya Caleb
Higher immigration rates
The report’s authors believe a robust immigration plan can help replenish vacancies. However, this will take time.
“In the meantime, it looks likely that labour shortages will continue to intensify, putting a cap on the productive potential of the economy, slowing growth and keeping upward pressure on costs,” conclude the authors.
To access the full report, visit https:// thoughtleadership.rbc.com/squeezeplay-higher-wages-alone-wont-solvecanadas-labour-shortage-problem.
Happy holidays
This may not be the gloom and doom story you wanted to read in the last issue of the year, but I find it easier to work with hard truths than sugarcoated ones. The good news is labour shortage is not a permanent problem. As fall turns to winter and winter turns to spring, this situation will also evolve. It might require strong action from governments of all levels, associations and companies, but I believe we can turn this around. On that hopeful note, I offer you warm wishes for this holiday season. May you all find joy and peace. See you in 2022.
Nithya Caleb ncaleb@annexbusinessmedia.com
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Groupe Robert and Dematic to become Quebec’s
first 3PL provider
Intelligent automation provider Dematic is partnering with Groupe Robert on a new distribution centre featuring 130-ft tall cranes that will support high-density storage and fulfillment of fresh and frozen products.
The Dematic Automated Storage and Retrieval System (AS/RS) will be one of the tallest for a third-party logistics (3PL) facility in Canada and the first-of-its-kind in Quebec. Completion is expected by February 2023.
News> file
Cardiff
Products opens new manufacturing facility in Ontario
Cardiff Products Corp., a family-owned business with more than 40 years of combined experience in the food industry, recently opened the doors of its new aseptic co-manufacturing facility in London, Ont.
Stew Cardiff, Cardiff CEO, formerly owned Shepherd Gourmet Dairy, a cheese and yogurt maker in Canada, co-manufacturing under many major North American brands. After selling their dairy business in 2018, the Cardiff family brought their operational expertise to the plant-based market. Now, multi-generational, Cardiff Products strives to become best in class in the aseptic co-manufacturing industry. It has fully equipped its facility with Tetra Pak processing and packaging equipment.
SUPPLIER NEWS
Federal government invests $20M in Natural Products Canada
Natural Products Canada (NPC) announces a strategic partnership with the federal government that will support its natural product innovation network of advice, connections, programs and investment to advance Canadian natural product innovation. With $20 million in new support from the Government of Canada, NPC and its partners will help 500 Canadian companies developing natural products and technologies, such as nutrition supplements, feed ingredients, compostable packaging and environmental remediation.
> AAK has developed a range of fats for chocolate and confectionery manufacturers that are looking to benefit from the growing popularity and premiumization of caramel. Akomel is a portfolio of clean-label and plant-based fats from sustainable sources. Non-hydrogenated, non-trans and low-saturated fat options are also available.
> All Fibersol products will now be distributed in Canada exclusively by Dempsey Corporation . Fibersol is a soluble dietary fibre food ingredient line that can be used in a variety of food and beverage applications as well as dietary supplements. It is a joint venture between Archer Daniels Midland Company, Matsutani Chemical Industry and Matsutani America.
> Sweegen is expanding its sweetener portfolio in early 2022 with the zero-calorie, high-intensity sweetener brazzein . The product was developed in collaboration with long-term innovation partner Conagen , which has scaled it to commercial production.
> Arla Foods Ingredients is launching a dry-blend version of its leading MFGM (milk fat globule membrane) ingredient that is used in infant formula products. Lacprodan MFGM-10 was the first MFGM ingredient for the global infant formula market. Now Arla Foods Ingredients has made MFGM available in a dry-blend option – Lacprodan Premium MFGM-10.
Barentz acquires Pestell Nutrition
Barentz has successfully completed the acquisition of Pestell Nutrition and its U.S. affiliate, Origination, LLC. Headquartered in New Hamburg, Ont., Pestell Nutrition is the distributor of feed additives, nutritional ingredients, macro and trace minerals and pet specialty ingredients for the animal health, animal nutrition and pet food sectors across North America.
Alberta Milk chooses Venture Play to champion dairy
Venture Play, a marketing services firm and part of the Venturepark business growth ecosystem, has been chosen as marketing agency of record for Alberta Milk, the nonprofit organization representing the province’s 500+ family-owned and operated dairy farms.
The account work includes brand strategy, media, creative, public relations, social media and experiential marketing. The new marketing campaign will educate consumers on sustainable dairy farming practices and address evolving consumer behaviour.
NSERC grants $1.75M to Niagara College’s food innovation centre
The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) has awarded a $1.75 million renewal of Technology Access Centre (TAC) funding to the Niagara College (NC) Research & Innovation division’s Canadian Food and Wine Institute (CFWI) Innovation Centre for another five years, at $350,000 per year. The CFWI Innovation Centre TAC is a food and beverage accelerator. The CFWI Innovation Centre team offers a full suite of services to support industry innovation and commercialization of new products and processes. From
new recipe development to shelf-life testing and nutritional labelling, the CFWI Innovation Centre pairs industry partners with faculty, recent graduates and students with the right expertise and equipment to meet industry needs. In all cases, the intellectual property developed during the project belongs to the industry partner.
During its first five-year grant operating as a TAC, the CFWI Innovation Centre served approximately 340 food and beverage businesses, with more than 490 technical services and 93 applied research projects. More than 100 students have gained hands-on research experience at the centre to provide a wealth of innovative solutions to industry partners.
Frontline International introduces Direct Plumb Oven System
Frontline International, Inc., unveils the Direct Plumb Oven System, which connects directly to ovens and rotisseries. Its hose attachment plugs into cooking units to automatically suction out fats and grease from the equipment’s drip pan without requiring any handling, dumping, or exposure to material.
Waste product is easily sucked through the hose and into the system’s containment caddy. One then simply wheels the sealed caddy over to the used oil containment tank and pumps the collected grease out of the caddy and into the tank using the same hose attachment. www.frontlineii.com
PEOPLE
> The Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre has appointed Sara Lui as director of new product innovation. Lui has been with the food centre for over 20 years, as product development manager. Throughout the years, Lui has worked with entrepreneurs, SMEs and multi-national companies in various sectors to create over 900 new products.
> Peak of the Market names Deena Clarke as chief financial officer and Jodi Johnson as marketing and communications manager. Clarke held the role of controller at Granny’s Poultry Cooperative for the past 12 years where she led the finance team. Johnson has 20 years of experience in marketing and communications.
> Burcon NutraScience Corporation names Peter H. Kappel as chair of its board of directors. He succeeds Dr. D. Lorne Tyrrell. Kappel was appointed as a director of Burcon in January 2016. Since his appointment, Kappel has served as a member in all the committees of Burcon’s board.
> Tate & Lyle names William ‘Bill’ Magee as president, North America, Food & Beverage Solutions, and as a member of Tate & Lyle’s executive committee. Magee joined Tate & Lyle in April 2018 and worked in different positions. In these roles, he has been instrumental in leading the company’s growth in the region over the last three years.
> Barentz expands its human nutrition sales team by appointing Matthew Najm as account manager for Ontario. Najm brings to Barentz more than 10 years of technical sales experience selling specialty ingredients and additives to the food industry.
> Tekni-Plex has named Eldon Schaffer as CEO of the company’s consumer products division. Schaffer will play a critical role in developing and executing business strategies that will enable the company to apply its materials science knowledge to customer product designs and challenges.
Festo designs a pneumatic cylinder for cheese making
Festo has introduced an application-specific pneumatic cylinder for cheese presses. The Festo CRD cylinder has a stainless-steel outer body, and is shaped like a bell. These cylinders are lubricated with biodegradable NSF-H1 food-safe grease that meets FDA 21 CFT 172.878 regulations.
The CRD is available in four bore sizes, with forces ranging from 3,016 N to 18,850 N at 6 bar. To enhance control, Festo offers the VTEM piezo-operated directional valves to synchronize large banks of cylinders in automated systems. For environments experiencing intensive cleaning, Festo offers a dry-running seal option for optimum operation even when harsh washdowns have dissolved cylinder lubricant. www.festo.ca
Hemco’s Vented Hood Tabletop Workstation Model 24200
Typical uses of Hemco’s Vented Hood Tabletop Workstation Model 24200 are histology, microprocessor, venting for hot plates, microscope stations, student workstations, sample weighing stations and handling pharmaceuticals. Constructed of chemical-resistant, lightweight advanced composites, it can be easily moved as procedures or workflow change. Dimensions are 24 in. wide x 15 in. deep x 24 in. high. Molded chemical-resistant work surface is recessed to contain spillage, and a 3-in. diameter outlet collar is provided for duct connection. The unit’s base consists of an integral recessed work surface to contain spillage. Fumes are vented through the integral fume side and rear walls and out the top.
www.HEMCOcorp.com/ductless.html
TFinal thoughts: Inherent risks in processing
Ron Wasik
his column will be my last one for Food in Canada. As indicated in last month’s column, this one will touch on the risks inherent in maintenance, training, operations, quality control, sanitation, sampling, lot identification and traceability.
Maintenance
Often overlooked as a food safety risk, poor maintenance can lead to serious issues. Take the case of Peanut Corporation of America. It failed to repair roof leaks and broken windows and screens, which produced conditions that resulted in a salmonella outbreak in the USA in 2008. Nine people died, more than 700 became ill, the company was liquidated and the CEO was sentenced to prison for 28 years. This should be a warning to anyone who thinks they are smart to cut back on maintenance.
Training
The importance of food safety training cannot be overstated. While the actual training session is key, it would be a waste of time if there is no follow up to ensure the teaching and recommendations are implemented properly.
Operations
Operations ‘rule’ the organization. Without them, there is nothing to sell, and the business will not survive. Every company provides key performance targets that incentivize the operations team to maximize output and efficiency and minimize downtime and waste. Achieving and surpassing these targets saves the company money and earns staff bonuses. However, achieving performance targets at the expense of food safety would end up costing the company more than what may have been saved. Food safety must always be an uncompromising performance mea-
sure for everyone in the company. There are no exceptions to that rule.
QA/QC
The quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) personnel are expected to establish and enforce a company’s food safety programs. However, there are problems. Three egregious practices expose a company to serious food safety issues. The first is paying minimum wage with little opportunity for advancement to QA/QC staff. The second is hiring poorly qualified people. The third is to rely on the food safety programs these poorly paid and under-qualified individuals implement. Remember, you get what you pay for and you sleep in the bed you make.
Sanitation
Sanitation workers are often regarded as the lowest class of all corporate employees. After all, this is hard, hot, dirty, sticky, poorly paying and hazardous work usually done late at night. It’s easy to understand why turnover is frequently high in sanitation. Budget cuts can be frequent. Recent food safety developments are now changing our perceptions about sanitation. It is now regarded as critical to a company’s success. Although the work remains hard, hot, dirty, sticky and hazardous, companies are paying top dollar to attract and retain highly qualified sanitation personnel. You can’t make safe food with dirty equipment or in an unclean room.
Sampling
What to sample and when and how much to sample are questions that must be seriously addressed by a food processor. Done correctly, sampling provides the company with sufficient data to determine if the product or process is up to standard. Unfortunately, sampling schemes can be manipulated to get the results one needs
to send a product to market. This is what the Peanut Corporation of America often did with disastrous results. Companies that manipulate sampling schemes to get the results they want will get into trouble. The right sampling program will provide a food processor with the data they need to control both the safety and quality of their products.
Lot identification and traceability
A lot is a discrete amount of a product containing a set of ingredients that may have been processed under different conditions. So, if there is a change of ingredients and/or processing conditions, the lot number used to identify that product should change. Detailed records of the ingredients and processes used to make the product should be recorded and retained for at least two years longer than the product’s shelf life or use-by date. Regrettably, some food processors assign the same lot number to all units of a product they make in a day or longer. Unfortunately, if that product ends up in a food recall, all products of that lot number will be implicated. If regulatory officials have doubts about the company’s lot coding practices, several other days of production will be recalled.
In closing
I have both enjoyed and benefited from writing for Food in Canada. Writing the column has motivated me to stay close to the entire food industry, and I am deeply grateful for this. I am also grateful to the readers who continue to support this unique magazine, which is the voice of our industry.
Dr. R.J. (Ron) Wasik, PhD, MBA, CFS, is president of RJW Consulting Canada Ltd. Contact him at rwasik@ rjwconsultingcanada.com
Food for the ‘Sol’
Istarted over 20 years ago in a basement. You never imagine it’s going to happen this way, but it has,” recalls Dror Balshine, founder of Sol Cuisine, Mississauga, Ont.
Balshine is referring to the fact that in 2019, his company earned $19 million. Currently, Sol Cuisine, a manufacturer of vegan foods, is pursuing an aggressive campaign to become a much larger player in the North American plant-based food space.
Sol Cuisine offers more than 30 products, including the #1 frozen plant-based burger patty in Canada (according to AC Nielsen, Sept 2020), sold at over 11,000 retail locations across North America. Its appetizer line includes a plant-based ‘chicken’ product in North America. Also, its holiday ‘roast’ was chosen by Whole Foods for its 365 brand. Sol Cuisine’s
‘chicken wings’ are available in the flavours of hot & spicy and crispy tenders.
Developments this year are ushering in a new era of growth for the company. Sol Cuisine went public in May 2021 on the TSX Venture Exchange. Balshine and CEO John Flanagan are using the money from going public to expand retail distribution in North America. This summer, Sol Cuisine signed agreements with the likes of Walmart, Loblaws and other major retailers. It’s also “generating brand velocity” through strategic marketing, “introducing breakthrough products” and “launching into new channels” including its own e-store.
As Flanagan explained when the company went public, Sol Cuisine has “built out the operational foundation necessary to support rapid and sustaining growth. With the capital to execute and a proven history of product innovation, consumer
preference and nutritional superiority, Sol Cuisine has a clear strategic path to leadership in the North American plant-based protein sector.”
The plant-based market is conservatively expected to grow about 20 per cent annually through 2027, according to Grand View Research.
TASTE AND NUTRITION
From the beginning, Balshine focused on creating products that provided an “outstanding culinary eating experience and with great nutritional value.”
“I started my career in construction sales in the Toronto area,” he recalls. “I was a vegan. I would drive around at lunchtime looking for something to eat. I bought a lot of subs with lettuce and tomato on bread. I would be over the moon if I found
ABOVE: Sol Cuisine offers more than 30 products.
company — BY TREENA HEIN —
Photos courtesy Sol Cuisines
a falafel place. I knew other people were frustrated as well. So, when I decided to try making my own products, I put the focus on restaurants and food service because I knew there was a gaping hole there.”
In 1996, Balshine started developing products at his home, experimenting to find the right mixtures and forms of ingredients that resulted in great taste and was nutritious.
“My parents lent me money,” he says. “By 1997, I had a meeting with Beaver Foods, which is a large food service company that also owns a fast food chain. They ran food service for about 3000 high school cafeterias, and I convinced them that they needed to provide alternatives to meat and also offer plant-based burgers and tacos.”
Beaver Foods was convinced. Shortly after, a natural foods store and a gourmet
grocery store in Toronto agreed to carry Balshine’s mixes for burgers and tacos. He quit his construction job. Sales in the high school cafeterias didn’t go as well as anticipated, “but it launched us in food service,” he recalls. “We got into correctional institutions, government buildings and universities where the food service was operated by Beaver Foods and other companies.”
Also, within about nine months of the original contract with Beaver Foods,
Balshine was signed up to provide major fast food chains with burgers for their menus, a service that’s still ongoing. Loblaws also signed on, wanting to grow its organic food section as well as to offer plant-based burger patties.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Meanwhile, Balshine was working on product development with scientists at the Universities of Guelph and Saskatchewan, along with some suppliers, who all had their own R&D departments. In the early 2000s, he hired one person to do R&D, and has slowly created a whole research department in-house.
R&D, he says, is the core of the business. Every crop protein is experimented with, including pea, soybeans, hemp, wheat, chickpea and black beans. All products in its three primary platforms
Sol Cuisine recently launched the sweet chili cauliflower wings product.
(burgers, appetizers and entrees) must fit Sol Cuisine’s guidelines and be high in key nutrients and fibre, while low in calories, fat and sodium.
“We have two guiding principles,” says Flanagan. “Taste great and be nutritionally superior. Making healthy products that taste fantastic, but are lower in fat and salt, which makes things taste good, is not easy, but we have done it.”
Flanagan also explains that “our competitors are focused on meat analogs, and we are thankful the big companies are doing what they’re doing. They’ve created significant category awareness. We have those products too. For example, our Crispy Chik’n bites and our Zesty Italian Meatballs, but we continue to focus on making products that are distinct, using
a culinary value-added approach.” These include Spicy Black Bean Bites and Sweet Chili Cauliflower Wings. More of these products are coming.
MARKETING
While product development continues, Balshine feels “we have to shout more from the mountaintops. It’s now important to
be a big name. It’s become a crowded marketplace. It’s hard to compete with large firms, and going public helps with that. We just need to connect with people.”
On that front, Flanagan reports “we are getting great traction with sampling at Costco stores. When people try our products, they will make repeat purchases. We’re also conducting targeted social media marketing campaigns.”
Like others in the food industry, Flanagan believes there’s a seismic shift in the eating patterns of consumers.
“The long-term outlook for the plantbased category is very positive,” he says. “The consumer is just getting started. Sixty-three per cent of Canadian consumers have only been in the category for two years or less. There is so much opportunity, and we are strategically building out the portfolio.”
He sees three main segments to the plant-based market: already vegan, flexitarians and young people. In that last segment, Sol Cuisine has started to supply a US company called Little Spoon that does meal delivery for kids.
“As young people grow, the plant-based movement will grow,” says Flanagan. “Overall, it will be a long-term shift.”
Sol Cuisine is well-prepared for expected growth in demand for its products. Its 35,000-sf facility in Mississauga has the capacity to produce 10 million kg of food per year, three times the current level of production.
“Our food tastes better,” says Balshine. “At home when I serve my products with other meat and vegan dishes, mine are fully finished. I’m really proud to make products that my kids like.”
Sol Cuisine has a 35,000-sf facility in Mississauga, Ont.
Exporting Canadian value-added pulses
Market demand for plant proteins is opening new growth avenues for pulse processors
— BY MARK JUHASZ —
According to the Global Pulse Confederation, pulses are experiencing billions of dollars’ worth of growth in annual demand. Domestically, Pulse Canada plans to develop new markets for 25 per cent of Canadian pulse production by 2025, which includes some 1.1 million tonnes of peas and 625,000 tonnes of lentils.
Promising market
The demand for plant-based meat alternatives is fuelling the growth in pulses. An Ernst & Young study for Protein Industries Canada (PIC) sees the business of meat substitutes growing to a $250-billion market annually by 2035.
In China, a market that already con-
sumes about $10-billion worth of these products, demand could easily grow by another 50 to 100 per cent. For Canadian processors, significant population growth in Asia, the Middle East and Africa provide target markets for pulse products.
Canada has long been a major exporter of pulse commodities. In 2019, it ranked fifth in global commodity exports, and 11th in food exports. The lower status of Canada’s actual food exports is the impetus for change. In 2019, 78.5 per cent of Canada’s food exports went to the U.S., but Canada is also now in free trade agreements with many of the world’s largest and fastest-growing importers, such as Japan, the EU and South Korea. For example, Saskatchewan produces more than a million hectares of peas, and has been a top exporter of lentils to critical markets in Asia, such as India.
Capacity building
To build Canadian capacity for exporting and promoting quality pulse products, Pulse Canada, the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council, and the American Pulse Association created in 2017 the Pulse Research Database for ongoing research into the nutrition, health, quality, functionality, processing and applications in pulses.
In August 2021, PIC announced the Food Convergence Innovation (FCI) Canada – Food and Beverage Supply Chain Project. The project is focused on enhancing connectivity in order to help strengthen Canadian food supply chains, as well as diversifying Canada’s plantbased food and ingredient offerings. PIC,
ABOVE: Canadian pulses are experiencing billions of dollars’ worth of growth in annual demand.
The rising demand for plant protein like pea flour is expanding the export markets for Canadian pulses.
launched in 2018 by the federal government, is partnering with several food and beverage organizations for the $2.7-million project.
PIC then said, “This will lead to the development of new plant-based protein ingredients and products, providing consumers around the world with more choices that align with their values, lifestyles and nutrition needs.”
Together with industry, PIC has committed more than $377 million to the Canadian plant-based sector.
All of the above stats indicate the value-added plant and pulses market is in strong demand. According to ReportLinker in Yahoo Finance, in August 2021, the global pea processed ingredients market is projected to reach nearly USD $5 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 10.1 per cent. Led by Saskatchewan-based AGT Foods and Ingredients, industry leaders in the Canadian pulse sector are actively pursuing this opportunity.
Investments
Significant financing is also underway. In 2018, French company Roquette began construction of a $600-million facility in Portage la Prairie, Man. The large pea processing plant took its first shipments of peas in November 2020. According to Roquette, the facility is the largest of its kind in the world, and will produce pea protein for food and sports nutrition products, along with food-grade starches and components like pea cream for animal feed.
The new plant manager at Roquette said one of the reasons to build a plant in Manitoba was “to bring the processor to the peas, rather than shipping the product to a distant processor [which is the case now]. Our main customer is North
America. It’s very strategic because Canada is a [leading] producer of peas; that’s why it’s very nice to be here.”
The Roquette facility expects to process 125,000 metric tons of peas annually once it reaches full operation in 2022.
In 2019, Ingredion, a leading ingredients supplier, formed a partnership with Saskatchewan-based Verdient Foods to produce protein concentrates and flours from lentils, fava beans and peas. In Manitoba, Merit Functional Foods has a new
NEW AFFINITY INTEGRA™ DICER
TRIUMPHS OVER CHALLENGING PRODUCTS
The new Affinity Integra excels at processing challenging, difficult-to-cut applications such as high-fat content, cold temperature, sticky, or brined products. The clean-cutting action achieves high yields of precise, targeted cut sizes well within customer parameters, and may be integrated to replace Model RA series machines already in the field. Visit the Urschel website for more information.
Dices:Strawberry,Garlic,&Relish Granulations: Cream-filled Cookie & Chocolate Crunch Bar
Blue Cheese Crumble, MozzarellaStrip,&CheddarDice
94,000-ft plant where it processes pea protein under the brand names of Peazazz and Peazac. Merit’s pea protein helps to retain moisture in protein bars to keep them from getting too hard. Merit’s blend of pea and
canola protein is “unparalleled in terms of nutritional quality,” according to Jeff Casper, director of research and development at Merit. The MeritPro customized pea blend works in dairy alternatives, snack
Pulse Canada plans to develop new markets for 25 per cent of Canadian pulse production by 2025, which includes some 1.1 million tonnes of peas and 625,000 tonnes of lentils.
bars and ready-to-mix beverages.
A recent development out of Alberta’s growing agri- and food- innovation ecosystem is the launch of Phyto Organix Foods. The company plans to be Alberta’s first state-of-the-art plant-protein facility using wet plant protein fractionation. The planned facility intends to process peas, and use temperature, pressure and water to break dehulled peas into protein, fibre and starch. Phyto intends to work with farmers using regenerative agricultural practices to source organic peas.
As ambition to export more value-added products grows domestically, it is worth mentioning global trends. Reporting in the Economic Times mentions that only in the spring of 2021 did India lift a three-year restriction on the import of some pulse categories. As the world’s largest consumer of pulses, traders and importers welcomed the move, while Indian millers expressed surprise at the decision. In US, under the Biden Administration, a continuation of some ‘buy American’ initiatives remain. In Brazil, the EU and Israel, several companies and partnerships are bringing innovative thinking and novel technologies to the development of pulse products, writes the Good Food Institute. Initiatives as diverse as the Brazil-based Institute of Beans and Pulses, Europe’s Smart Protein, or Israel’s Innovopro and ChicP are garnering global attention. Canadian value-added pulse product companies will face intense competition.
Barks&bites
Royal Canin to achieve carbon neutral footprint by 2025
Royal Canin has committed to becoming carbon neutral certified by 2025 with its first product range aiming to be certified carbon neutral by 2022. This comes as parent company Mars, Inc., announces that it seeks to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions across its full value chain by 2050.
Recognizing the important role business has in supporting the Paris Agreement to limit global temperature rises to 1.5 C, Royal Canin will achieve carbon neutrality by prioritizing meaningful action on reducing the carbon footprint of its full value chain and by investing in certified carbon credits.
Royal Canin plans to use the internationally recognized PAS 2060 standard for carbon neutrality, and the brand will report transparently and regularly on its journey.
Loic Moutault, president of Royal Canin, said, “As experts in cat and dog nutrition, we have been guided by science for the last 50 years. It is science-led initiatives and decisive action, not just ambition, which will help us hit our 2025 climate target. We believe that making this bold carbon neutral commitment will inspire and mobilize new and impactful ideas, action and results across Royal Canin’s global value chain that help us improve our environmental footprint and make a meaningful positive difference to pets, people and the planet.”
The four action areas Royal Canin will take to be carbon neutral by 2025 are:
• transitioning to renewable electricity;
• procuring sustainable ingredients;
• reducing waste and boosting circularity; and
• climate-smart business transformation.
For any residual emissions that Royal Canin cannot completely remove or reduce, the brand will invest in high-quality, removals–based certified carbon credits. The use of removals–based credits is aligned with the SBTi (Science Based Targets) Net Zero Foundations paper.
Key
Technology introduces
Veryx
digital sorters for pet foods
Key Technology, a member of the Duravant family of operating companies, introduces its Veryx digital sorters for pet food products. Veryx finds and removes foreign material and products with defects to improve product quality, eliminate the chance of cross-contamination and protect brands, all while minimizing labour.
Veryx can be configured to sort a wide range of pet foods. When installed at the end of the line, it helps ensure final product quality for kibble, chews and treats including dried, dehydrated and freeze-dried products. When installed upstream near raw receiving, it inspects ingredients such as frozen
proteins and other ingredients for wet pet foods. By detecting the colour, size, shape and/or structural properties of every object, Veryx removes plastics, glass, paper and other FM, as well as product defects, as defined by each pet food processor.
Perfection Pet Foods selects Redwood Logistics to manage supply chain operations
Perfection Pet Foods has opened a distribution and fulfillment centre in Visalia, Calif., with the help of Redwood Logistics. Understanding Perfection Pet Foods’ needs while also taking safety and compliance requirements into consideration, Redwood completed a green field analysis. By doing so, Redwood determined the optimal location for the new facility and used its expertise and economies of scale to negotiate contracts. Redwood also implemented a network design that optimized Perfection Pet Foods’ operations.
“We sought out Redwood for their ability to partner with us across the entire distribution end of our supply chain, supporting our continued growth while also delivering a top tier service experience to our customers,” said Jaison Klingensmith, vice-president of supply and demand planning, Perfection Pet Foods.
Additionally, Redwood installed Oracle’s WMS for inventory tracking along with integrating RedwoodConnect, Redwood’s proprietary integration platform as a service, to connect orders to the WMS. Perfection Pet Foods will utilize Redwood’s LTL and Parcel capabilities for e-commerce fulfilment.
Vemag Extruders, Formers and Depositors
Holac Dicers and Slicers
Seydelmann Grinders, Mixers and Bowl Cutters
Vemag Sausage and Meat Stick Linkers and Portioners DJM VacForm Multi-lane Formers
RAW REVOLUTION
Inna
Shekhtman of Red Dog Blue Kat firmly believes raw food is the best for pets
— BY MARK CARDWELL —
Inna Shekhtman is a woman on a mission. Since 2004, the Vancouver-based pet food entrepreneur has been making and selling frozen raw dog and cat food and treats using human-grade meat.
However, with millions in new private funding and the hiring of a veterinarian, Shekhtman is now aiming to ramp up sales, enter new markets and shake up the Canadian pet food industry with her niche brand of sustainable fresh products, and an unshakeable faith in their ability to improve animal health and longevity.
“Variety is the spice of life,” said Shekhtman, co-founder and CEO of Red Dog Deli Raw Food. “However, variety is missing from regular pet food, which is highly processed. We’re here to provide pet owners with natural, healthy foods and give them the guidance and support they need to make a dietary transition that will allow their pets to live their best life and age gracefully.”
Services
Headquartered in Port Coquitlam, a 20-minute drive east of Vancouver, the company manufactures four products with around 50 varieties within those lines—from frozen complete meals and bones to treats and supplements—under the Red Dog Blue Kat label.
The company also offers a wide range of online complimentary services, including a portion calculator, feed guide and vet finder. It provides fee-based consultation services ranging from customized diet and
lifestyle plans for pet owners new to raw food or those with pets with health challenges like food sensitivities or allergies.
Since August, those services are underpinned by Jules Mantler, an Australian-born veterinarian and animal nutritionist with 16 years of experience.
“Her role is to help pet parents transition to raw and better understand their pets, to formulate new products and review current formulations, do nutritional research and help with the development of new educational content,” said Shekhtman. “She is also working on connecting with other veterinarians who are open to fresh food diets and building a network that can support pet parents.”
Capital investment
The new hire comes on the heels of a strategic partnership that Red Dog Deli Raw
Food inked in April with Forage Capital Partners, a $100-million Canadian growth equity fund that focuses on companies with disruptive products and business models in the agriculture and food industry value chains.
Under the terms of the deal, Calgary-based Forage and three pet-food industry experts—John Hart, Scott Doyle and Edmund O’Keefe—will provide $3.5 million in funding and professional assistance to help fuel and guide Shekhtman’s plans to expand her company’s paw print in the pet food industry.
“We’re proud to partner with the passionate team at Red Dog on their growth strategy,” Steven Leakos, one of Forage’s four partners, said when the partnership was announced. “Raw diets are a rapidly growing segment of the pet nutrition market in the North America (and) we’re
Red Dog Blue Kat manufactures frozen raw dog and cat food and treats using human-grade meat.
Photos courtesy Red Dog Blue Kat
excited by the opportunity to build on the momentum retailers are seeing in Canada through continued innovation in both product and package formats.”
For his part, American pet food executive and investor John Hart called Red Dog Deli “a highly differentiated, unique brand in the raw category,” and said he embraces Shekhtman’s vision and mission to provide better fresh nutrition solutions using high-quality, sustainably sourced ingredients.
The origin story
For 43-year-old Shekhtman, the partnership marks a new milestone in her decades-old quest to make a difference in the health and well-being of household pets by developing minimally processed whole foods based on animals’ ancestral nutritional needs.
That journey began in the late 1980s when Shekhtman’s entire family emigrated from Russia to Canada, settling in Edmonton. After graduating from the University of Alberta with a degree in computer science, she moved to Vancouver to work as a software engineer at MacDonald Dettwiler.
She brought the family dog, a retriever that soon died from an unexplained illness
that caused severe inflammation.
“I felt very guilty,” recalled Shekhtman. “We tried surgery but it didn’t help. To this day I think the dry pet store kibble I fed her contributed to her illness.”
By then Shekhtman was volunteering at an animal shelter in Richmond, where she adopted a year-old Irish wolfhound bitch she named Adhara. She soon met a small group of women who were clients of vets
Inna Shekhtman of Red Dog Blue Kat
who were proponents of raw food. “I used my research skills to learn about nutrition and the negative effects that processed foods can have on people and animals and the benefits from eating fresh foods,” said Shekhtman. “One day it all just clicked and everything made sense.”
In 2004, Shekhtman and a half-dozen people from the dog park made some test batches of raw food with a blender in a kitchen and fed them to their pets. “In just two weeks I saw incredible changes in Adhara,” said Shekhtman. “She reverted to being a puppy. Her energy level went through the roof, her poop got smaller and less smelly, and her teeth lost their tartar and become pearly white.”
Soon, Shekhtman, her husband Kevin Plimbley, two of the women from the group and another couple rented a warehouse, a meat grinder, fridge, freezer and other equipment needed to make enough raw food to feed their pets and to sell to other pet owners.
“It started out as a weekend gig, but it just started growing like crazy,” said Shekhtman. “We started making four or five formulas and selling them through stores and word of mouth.”
From the get go, the formulas of the fledging company the partners dubbed Red Dog (Blue Kat was added to the name years later
when they started making cat food) were similar to what animals ate in the wild hundreds of years ago. Dog meals, for example, have one of a dozen different proteins including beef, chicken, turkey, lamb and buffalo, and contain 75 per cent muscle meat, organ and bone, and 25 per cent organic juiced vegetables.
Cat meals contain 98 per cent muscle meat, organ and bone, and two per cent organic juiced vegetables.
“Dogs and cats are biological creatures like us,” said Shekhtman. “Their cells require nutrition and their digestive system, like ours, is designed to process things that are simple and whole and haven’t been turned into something else and over-processed.”
From side hustle to full-time
Bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, Shekhtman quit her job and went at the raw pet food venture full time as sole owner.
With $10,000 of her own money, she set the company up first in a small facility on Mitchell Island in Richmond, then on the fourth floor of a Save On Meats manufacturing building on Hastings St. in an older area of Vancouver.
She spent five years there, selling some $700,000 worth of product a year through pet food stores.
After moving to two bigger locations in North Vancouver—the second a 7,000-sf facility plagued with major structural problems that drained her cash and caused endless headaches and heartaches for six years—Shekhtman relocated Red Dog Raw Deli to a new custom-made factory in Port Coquitlam in 2018.
“It helped us scale up and meet our growth goals,” she said. “In Year 1 there we hit our estimate for Year 3, which was $3 million.”
The new 12,000-sf building is HACCAP certified and equipped with cutting-edge meat industry equipment including two mixer grinders, a portioning machine, vacuum sealer and several freezers.
“We are 100 per cent frozen,” said Shekhtman. “We do tempering to go through the machinery, then the processing room where we mix, grind and package product before it goes into a blast freezer.”
Her company has two refrigerated trucks for deliveries in B.C.’s Lower Mainland region. Products bound for the Western provinces and Ontario are shipped via third-party reefer carriers.
According to Shekhtman, the company is now doing more than $4 million in sales. Their customer base includes 6,000 pets, roughly 70 per cent of them are dogs. “Cats represent only 30 per cent, but their numbers are growing fast,” said Shekhtman. “That’s understandable because cats benefit more from raw food than dogs.”
Her goal now, she added, is continue producing top-quality raw food and helping people learn about and transition to raw food like she did.
“We offer a holistic diet that is designed for dogs and cats at the different stages of their lives,” said Shekhtman. “You can’t just continue to give the same processed stuff that is neither natural nor healthy to your pets all the time. That’s what the regular pet food industry is all about. But we believe that raw is where’s it at.”
