By Sue Mah, RD
You’ve probably noticed the rising food prices lately. According to the Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN), grocery prices in Canada have jumped by almost 22% between February 2021 and February 2024.
To address this food affordability crisis, the Canadian food industry is looking to technology and innovation to improve efficiency and save costs. To support this the Canadian Food Innovation Network recently published a whitepaper highlighting the role of innovative technology in combatting rising food costs. “Food affordability and price inflation are driven by complex supply chain issues,” says Dana McCauley, CEO Canadian Food Innovation Network, “Adopting innovative technologies is not just beneficial but essential for stabilizing food prices.”
Contributing factors to the current food inflation situation include staffing shortages, escalating labour costs, high input/ingredient costs as well as a challenging business environment for Canadian food producers/distributors. The CFIN funds projects which leverage technological innovation to tackle these issues. In a recent webinar, McCauley presented examples of how food businesses across the country are tackling these key issues and fighting inflation with innovation.
Addressing Labour Shortages
With a shortfall of 50,000 workers and an anticipated 66,800 retirements by the year 2023, the food and beverage sector is facing a critical labour shortage.1 Innovative technology offers solutions.
For example, DeepSight Réalité Augmentée in Montreal, Quebec, uses augmented reality technology to empower employees at food processing and foodservice companies. While wearing smart glasses, employees view 3D instruction guides which are superimposed on the work environment with real-time assistance. This innovation drives skills training as well as enables faster knowledge transfer, efficient training of new employees and upskilling of experienced workers – all important to address the labour gap in the food processing sector.
Reducing Input Costs
The rising cost of food ingredient staples and packaging are ultimately passed on to consumers. Innovations such as novel ingredients can offer real cost saving solutions to Canadian food manufacturers.
Crush Dynamics Inc., located in British Columbia’s Okanagan wine-rich region, has developed an innovative process to ferment grape pomace which is the leftover stems, skins and seeds after grapes are crushed to make wine.The resulting product is a polyphenol-rich powder which can be used to reduce the sugar and sodium content of a food/beverage product by 50% and 80% respectively. This single ingredient can provide cost savings to both producers and consumers. In fact, Purdy’s is exploring the use of this novel ingredient to reduce the sugar content in its chocolate products. This innovation has the added benefit of promoting sustainability and reducing agricultural waste.
Minimizing Food Waste
About 58% of the food produced in Canada is lost to landfills.2 Extending the shelf life of food not only reduces the amount of food wasted but also lowers greenhouse gas emissions. Across Canada, several innovative businesses are leading the way to tackle this issue.
Located in Lévis, Quebec, the company Innodal received the 2024 Governor General Innovation Award for its development of an antimicrobial protein. The protein enhances food safety and shelf life by acting as a shield to reduce listeria. Listeria is a foodborne bacterium which can be found in foods such as unpasteurized milk, soft/semi-soft cheeses, hot dogs, deli meat and refrigerated pâtés.
Another innovator in Ottawa, Ontario, Food Cycle Science, has created tabletop units aimed at reducing the volume of household food waste by up to 90%. Food scraps are converted into an odourless, nutrient-rich soil that can be used as garden fertilizer. Larger bin style bio-digestion units are available for commercial businesses. The company is also developing enzymes to rapidly break down biodegradable plastics which too can be transformed with food waste to create a beneficial soil additive.
Finally, Plan Automation, located in Bolton, Ontario, has developed the first X-ray reclaim facility for food and beverage manufacturers. Their system allows companies to use an X-ray to inspect potentially contaminated production batches and isolate the contaminants. Rather than discarding the entire product line, only the contaminated packages are removed. In addition to reducing food waste and product loss, this technology diverts unnecessary waste from the landfill. To date they have inspected over $80 Million worth of food products and diverted 2.5 million kgs of finished food product from entering landfills.
Although, food inflation is a complex issue with no easy solutions it’s fascinating to learn how Canadian companies are embracing innovative technologies along the supply chain to ultimately address food inflation and often reduce food waste at the same time.
References:
- McCauley Dana & Barlow Alexandra (2024 June 7). Unpuzzling Productivity: Innovation Strategies for Unlocking Margins in Food Processing [Webinar]. Food in Canada & Canadian Food Innovation Network. ↩︎
- Canadian Food Innovation Network (2024). Unpuzzling Food Inflation: How Innovation Adoption by Canada’s Food Processing Sector will Flatten the Curve. https://www.cfin-rcia.ca/yodl/cfin-reports/unpuzzlingfoodinflation ↩︎
