Canadian Food Business Fall 2019

» The science of food and beverage FALL 2019

BLOCKCHAIN OFFERS CRITICAL LINKS TO FOOD SECURITY

CASE STUDY

Sol Cuisine

» The science of food and beverage

To tackle climate change, we need to rethink our food system

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way we produce, consume and discard food is no longer sustainable. That much is clear from the newly released UN climate change report, which warns that we must rethink how we produce our food – and quickly – to avoid the most devastating impacts of global food production, including massive deforestation, staggering biodiversity loss and accelerating climate change.

While it’s not often recognized, the food industry is an enormous driver of climate change, and our current global food system is pushing our natural world to the breaking point. At the press conference releasing the Special Report on Climate Change and Land, report co-chair Eduardo Calvo Buendía stated that “the food system as a whole – which includes food production and processing, transport, retail consumption, loss and waste – is currently responsible for up to a third of our global greenhouse gas emissions.”

In other words, while most of us have been focusing on the energy and transportation sectors in the climate change fight, we cannot ignore the role that our food production has on cutting emissions and curbing climate change. By addressing food waste and emissions from animal agriculture, we can start to tackle this problem. How do we do that?

Livestock production is a leading culprit – driving deforestation, degrading our water quality and increasing air pollution. In fact, animal agriculture has such an enormous impact on the environment that if every American reduced their meat consumption by just 10 per cent – about 6 ounces per week – we would save approximately 7.8 trillion gallons of water. That’s more than all the water in Lake Champlain. We’d also save 49 billion pounds of carbon dioxide every year – the equivalent of planting 1 billion carbon-absorbing trees.

What’s more, to the injury from unsustainable food production, we add the insult of extraordinary levels of food waste: nearly one-third of all food produced globally ends up in our garbage cans and then landfills. We are throwing away $1 trillion worth of food, or about half of Africa’s GDP, every single year. At our current rates, if food waste were a country, it would be the world’s third-largest carbon emitter after the U.S. and China.

To ensure global food security and sustainable food practices in an ever-growing world, we need to reexamine our food systems

and take regional resources – such as land and water availability, as well as local economies and culture – into account. To start, developed countries must encourage food companies to produce more sustainable food, including more plant-based options, and educate consumers and retailers about healthy and sustainable diets. Leaders must create policies that ensure all communities and children have access to affordable fruits and vegetables.

And we all can do our part to reduce food waste, whether it’s in our company cafeterias or our own refrigerators.

Technology also plays a part. Developed countries should support and incentivize emerging innovative technologies in plant-based foods, as well as carbon-neutral or low-carbon meat production.

Developing countries, on the other hand, face high levels of undernutrition, as well as limited access to healthy foods. Many nutrient-dense foods (such as fruits, vegetables and quality meats) are highly perishable, often making prices significantly higher than ultra-processed, nutrient-poor and calorie-dense foods. The high cost of nutrient-dense foods creates a significant barrier to healthy diets.

By promoting enhanced production of healthy and nutritious foods, while also improving markets in low-income countries, we can lower prices and increase accessibility of healthy and sustainable diets. Politicians can also tackle systemic inequalities by redirecting agricultural subsidies to promote healthy foods, as well as investing in infrastructure like rural roads, electricity, storage and cooling chain.

Change must happen at every level if we want to build a better food system. International participation and resource-sharing can spread regional solutions across countries. And working for change at the ground level – among individuals, communities, local and federal governments and private entities – can help fight hunger and food inequality firsthand.

Yes, our food system is broken, but not irrevocably so. The challenges are enormous, but by understanding the problem and potential solutions, we can effect critical changes in the ways we produce, consume and dispose of food.

Kathleen Rogers is President of Earth Day Network.

Dr. Shenggen Fan is Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and a Commissioner for the EAT – Lancet Commission.

In the next issue of Canadian Food Business and BioLab Business, we’ll tackle the topic of feeding the world: How is science working to solve our supply/demand issues? What are some of the technologies that will help farms become more efficient?

How can we conquer some of the biggest challenges facing the future of food? From the labs to the fields, we’ll explore the problems and solutions for our hungry planet.

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By Kathleen Rogers and Dr. Shenggen Fan

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New s Bites Putting trust on the balance sheet

Egg Farmers of Canada and McDonald’s are putting consumer trust on the balance sheet. In July, the restaurant chain joined forces with Egg Farmers of Canada to have its egg menu items stamped with the farmers’ seal of approval. Until September, McDonald’s ads include the Egg Quality Assurance (EQA) certification mark for its McMuffin sandwiches.

“The EQA program is the culmination of decades of work building world-class standards in the Canadian egg industry,” notes Roger Pelissero, a third-generation egg farmer and Chair of Egg Farmers of Canada.

Launched this summer, the EQA is an industrywide initiative that certifies Canadian eggs are produced according to strict food safety and animal welfare standards, which includes on-farm inspections and third-party audits. For Canadians, it’s an instantly recognizable sign that their eggs are made in Canada and are of the highest quality.

The egg farmers say that EQA-certified eggs meet their highest standards, so the program ensures that the storage, cleanliness, air quality, feed and recordkeeping of farms are topnotch.

“We are committed to industry-leading certification, and working with other leaders is the core of our sourcing strategy,” says Rob Dick, supply chain officer for McDonald’s Canada.

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New network of plant-based food locations

Growing consumer demand for plant-based foods is fuelling a partnership between Compass Group Canada, a leading food service provider, and Copper Branch, the world’s largest vegan restaurant chain. The partnership allows for the opening of up to 50 locations over 10 years to improve the availability of vegan options in hospitals and on campuses across Canada, with five planned openings in the next year.

Michael Hachey, chief innovation officer at Compass Group Canada, notes, “This strategic partnership is a direct response to what our customers have told us: They want healthy, plant-based options that are environmentally sustainable and fit into a wellbalanced lifestyle.”

The initiative brings more vegan options to Canadians across the country, says Rio Infantino, Copper Branch’s CEO: “Our partnership with Compass Group Canada will allow us to accelerate our growth and expand our national footprint.” Launched in 2014, the company started in Quebec and has expanded to more than 60 franchise restaurants in Canada and, more recently, the U.S.

Three trailblazers share $150,000 innovation award

Simon Fraser University (SFU), BarrelWise Technologies and Technology Brewing Corporation have each received $50,000 from B.C.’s Agritech Innovation Challenge for leading-edge projects that will help battle the varroa mite in bees, improve winemaking processes and develop robots for mushroom harvesting.

Researchers at SFU are exploring how a non-toxic chemical compound can target the varroa mite, a pest that can cause significant bee colony loss. Effective varroa control promotes healthy hives and increases the probability of hives surviving the winter. Results from this study could lead to healthier hives in B.C., an increased availability of local pollinators, improved honey production and a reduction in imported bee colonies.

BarrelWise Technologies in Vancouver is developing a tool that helps winemakers care for aging wine barrels, making the process more consistent and cost effective. The venture’s equipment allows barrels to remain sealed during the entire aging process, reducing the risk of contamination. It also tracks key chemical data, such as free sulfur dioxide, in each barrel, allowing winemakers to better monitor and control wine production. BarrelWise hopes its tool will help further improve the quality of wine produced in B.C. Technology Brewing Corporation, a Salmon Arm company, is developing a vision-guided robot capable of accurately picking, trimming and placing mushrooms in store-ready boxes. This project could help get B.C. mushrooms to market quicker and help address the mushroom sector’s labour shortage.

CASE STUDY: Sol Cuisine

Strategy: “We recently launched a rebrand of our mission and revamped all packaging, which now features beautiful photography to showcase strong appetite appeal,” Balshine explains. “The packaging truly reflects the quality and texture of the plant-based protein foods within. We even refreshed our logo to reflect the simple and natural ingredients in the recipes, and the artisanal essence of the product line.”

Newly launched products include the Sunflower Beet Burger, Portobello Quinoa Burger, Lemon Dill Salm’n Burger and three appetizer/entrée options: Greek Moussaka Meatballs (the first lamb substitute in the market), Zesty Italian Meatballs and Ancient Grains Chik’n Tenders. In total, Sol Cuisine offers eight plant-based burgers and four plantbased protein entrees, plus Veggie Breakfast Sausages.

“We have an in-house R&D team,” Balshine says, “which allows for strength and speed of innovation. Our R&D team has gone through several variations of product development to

enhance taste, texture and nutrition of our lineup. One of the biggest concerns that consumers have with veggie burgers, in addition to taste and nutritionals, is texture. We’ve definitely improved both the texture and flavour in all of our products to meet consumer demand. We want to demonstrate that you don’t have to sacrifice taste when you eat plant-based.”

Results: Sol Cuisine’s sales growth from 2016 to 2019 was more than 161 per cent. Following the brand refresh, Canadian retail sales grew 42 per cent the following the year. “We are very pleased to see that consumers are embracing our new look,” Balshine adds. “The category is growing by leaps and bounds but, at the end of the day, consumers’ taste buds and their ability to read labels and seek out powerful ingredients that nourish their bodies will be key to a brand’s survival as Canadians strive for healthier choices.”

Summary: “Sol Cuisine was born out of my passion for both food and business,” says Balshine. “As a vegetarian, it spoke to my mission to impact health, animal welfare and environmental issues at the same time. The goal has always been to provide choices to consumers looking to reduce the amount of meat they consume, with minimal processing and a clean ingredient panel.”

Sol Cuisine’s sales growth from 2016 to 2019 was more than

161%

A year after the brand refresh, retail sales grew

42%

Before the redesign

** Mintel Meat Alternatives Canada, 2018

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Background: Sol Cuisine was established in 1996 by Dror Balshine, and pioneered plant-based protein foods in Canada by tapping into a unique and mostly untouched market at that time. Ingredients are sourced locally wherever possible, and all products are 100 per cent plant-based, Non-GMO Project Verified, kosher and halal, produced at its 35,000-sq.ft. manufacturing facility in Ontario, which has SQF GFSI global certification in food safety.

“The company and its products have evolved as tastes have changed,” Balshine says, “and the recent decision to update the packaging and products was based on the need to elevate the branding to match the quality of the product profile. We now have studies that say more than half of Canadians, at 53 per cent, are choosing to eat plant-based foods.** That’s incredible, and far exceeds demand when we started out. We’ll continue to evolve and map to our mission to make nutrient-dense food that is accessible, available and delivers on taste.”

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Why there has never been a better time to embrace the tiny but mighty oat

By Natasha Questel, VP of Marketing at Earth’s Own

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This year saw some big changes to the way Canadians think about food.

Canada’s 2019 Food Guide sidelined milk and dairy to focus more on eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables and protein, and Canadians stood up and said that they wanted to eat more plants. While this may be news to some, it certainly wasn’t to us. At Earth’s Own, we’ve been shouting proudly about the power of plants since we started back in 1998, and we plan to do so for many more years to come.

Considering more than half of Canadians say they want to eat less meat and incorporate more plant-based foods into their diets, and research reveals that the country is greatly concerned about the perils of climate change, we decided what better time than now to re-brand. In April, we reemerged onto the market with a new design, a simplified product line and a rallying call to join the plant-based revolution. We also made the bold move to ensure all of our cartons are made from plants grown in sustainable forests. Our fresh re-brand and new, eye-catching packaging has allowed us to better educate the nation about the positive impact a plant-based lifestyle has on both the planet and people. To further simplify our product offering, we also consolidated our previous sub brands – So Nice, So Fresh and So Good – into one master Earth’s Own brand and adopted the new tagline, “We dig plants,” to spread our message even further.

We launched Earth’s Own Oat Original and Unsweetened Vanilla in April 2017 because we want to be a catalyst for change; the tiny but mighty oat allows us to do just that. It possesses numerous health and environmental benefits because oat milk is higher in fibre and protein than almond (and lower in fat than dairy), and it is also an environmental superhero for the planet, especially when you compare it to dairy milk.

Better yet, all of our oats are grown by Canadian farmers on Canadian soil, and all they require are land, sunshine and rainwater to grow; the crops are glyphosate free and require about seven times less water to produce than almond or cow’s milk. The fact that the 2019 Food and Beverage trend reports predict that oat will continue to outpace the rest of the plant-based milk options and become king of the non-dairy aisle, is proof that we’re on to something.

After an overwhelmingly positive response to our oat milk, in May we expanded our lineup and rolled out two new products: Chocolate Oat, which contains 50 per cent less sugar than regular dairy-based chocolate milk, and Oat Barista, a game-changing beverage created with coffee drinkers in mind and developed in partnership with expert baristas. We also launched our single-serve 250mL offerings of Original, Unsweetened Vanilla and Chocolate Oat, which are nutritious, great for allergen-friendly school lunches and are a perfect handbag size for snacking on the go.

Plant-based eating has a massive impact on the earth, and at Earth’s Own we recognize that we have an important role to play for the sake of our customers’ health and that of the planet. This is so much more than greatlooking new products – this is about bold messaging and about putting a stake in the ground for what we believe in.

FEATURE

Blockchain offers critical links to

food security EVERY

year, one in eight Canadians – roughly four million people – gets sick from contaminated food. With shipments coming into the country from every corner of the world, it gets challenging to secure a safe supply of food in an increasingly complex process.

For some, blockchain technology promises a failsafe. Blockchain is entering the mainstream among food suppliers looking to avert a contamination crisis, like the one that hit last November, when three major grocery chains – Loblaws, Sobeys and Metro – had to remove lettuce suspected of E. coli contamination. Another retailer, Walmart, took it one step further, asking its leafy green vegetable suppliers to join IBM’s blockchain-based food traceability initiative.

The previous year, Walmart worked on a blockchain platform introduced by tech giant IBM, along with a number of other companies, including Dole, Driscoll’s, Golden State Foods, Kroger, McCormick, McLane, Nestlé, Tyson Foods and Unilever, to digitize the food supply process and help offset potential cross-contamination, illness and waste.

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By Jana Manolakos

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FEATURE

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Walmart expects its fresh leafy green suppliers to trace their products back to farms in seconds – not days, as it currently stands.

It’s something blockchain technology can deliver, so the company is encouraging its suppliers to join IBM’s Food Trust platform.

Just like its name suggests, blockchain links chunks of information together, uploaded to the Cloud by trusted members on a secure network. Every member of the chain can see changes made to blocks of data along any part of the chain. For example, it could be used to record the details of agri-food products moving from the farm all the way to the consumer, with entries made and verified at each step in the production chain.

Evan Fraser, Director of the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph and Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security, explains, “In essence, blockchain gives us the tools to track and verify almost anything we can imagine in complicated global food supply chains.” And this means consumers will know exactly what they’re eating, how it is produced and where it has come from, he says.

Fraser notes, “Regulators will be able to devise policies that reward food products that have low carbon emissions; public health officials will be able to track pathogens; and the industry will benefit by being able to develop niche products for specific markets.”

Unleashing the technology’s potential will make it faster for organizations of all sizes and in all industries to improve business processes. “Unlike any technology before it, blockchain is transforming the way like-minded organizations come together, and enable a new level of trust based on a single view of the truth,” says Marie Wieck, general manager of IBM Blockchain.

Both in Canada and the United States, food recall processes have been criticized for slow response times across the supply chain.

So in the case of the E. coli–contaminated lettuce, the vegetables’ provenance from seed to table would have been traced easily within seconds through the blockchain – by some estimates as quickly as 2.2 seconds, as compared to days and sometimes weeks.

In a letter to its suppliers, Walmart explained, “By quickly tracing leafy greens back to source during an outbreak using recent advances in new and emerging technologies, impacts to human health can be minimized, health officials can conduct rapid and more thorough root cause analysis to inform future prevention efforts, and the implication and associated losses of unaffected products that are inaccurately linked to an outbreak can be avoided.”

Walmart has given its suppliers until the end of this September to upload their data to the Food Trust network, promoting it as “a user-friendly, low-cost, blockchain-enabled traceability solution that meets our requirements and creates shared value for the entire leafy green farm to table continuum.” A tool kit and webinars are offered to suppliers to help them get up to speed.

Retailers like Walmart aren’t the only ones in the food industry who are jumping on blockchain technology. The University of Guelph has partnered with IBM Canada and industry groups such as SoyCanada and Grain Farmers of Ontario to look at ways of applying the system for expansion of export markets, where authentication is an important selling tool.

“In essence, blockchain gives us the tools to track and verify almost anything we can imagine in complicated global food supply chains.

Regulators will be able to devise policies that reward food products that have low carbon emissions; public health officials will be able to track pathogens; and the industry will benefit by being able to develop niche products for specific markets.”

– Evan Fraser, Director of the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph and Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security

FOOD WARE

This first-of-its-kind nitrile glove is infused with metal and was designed specifically for the food processing industry. Now, if someone loses a piece of their glove, processing lines equipped with metal detectors will identify the fragment, making it easy to separate the contaminated product from the rest. Compared to vinyl gloves, nitrile is much more durable; studies have shown a tenfold increase in average failure rates (punctures and tears) when using vinyl. The gloves are available in six sizes, from X-small to 2X-large. www.superiorglove.com

TM3 CLOSED-BOTTOM GROMMET FOR CONDIMENTS Perfect for storing utensils and condiments at selfservice stations in takeout restaurants and buffets, the TM3 grommet can store loose utensils, assorted condiment packets, straws, coffee stirrers, cream and sugar, or anything else you need to keep within reach. The satin stainless steel finish has a timeless look and, most importantly, is easy to clean. It’s easy to install: Just drill a 6-inch-diameter hole and drop in from the top. The TM3 sits nearly flush with the surface for a seamless, low-profile look. Its 6-inch depth ensures plenty of storage space and room for reaching inside. www.mockett.com

HELPING TO FIND THE PERFECT PROTEIN DETECT SALMONELLA BEFORE IT LEAVES THE PRODUCTION LINE This summer, the Solus One Salmonella immunoassay kit received AOAC Certification for use in testing herbs, spices and flavourings.

Designed specifically to meet the demands for speed and accuracy in food testing, results for up to 558 samples can be created from a single machine in an eight-hour shift, producing negative or positive results within 24 hours.

Samples as small as 25g and up to 375g can be tested. www.solusscientific.com

Seed-breeding specialist Equinom launched a new Product Profiler app to help food companies select plant protein sources and characteristics from a comprehensive bank of genetically available traits, in order to develop high-value protein products with better functionality. The app also allows protein sources to be tailored to product specifications in a manner that is faster and more accurate than previous technologies allowed. The new application toolbox provides comprehensive insight into the diverse and compelling world of seeds and crops, as well as the vast scope of their genetic makeup and inherent biological potential. Equinom’s userfriendly app draws from a limitless bank of available seeds. The app makes sourcing of high-value, non-GMO grain much more accessible and affordable for food companies and farmers alike. equi-nom.com/smarter-protein/

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METAL HEAD KEEP KLEEN GLOVES

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