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Food Technology Exchange (FTX)

The Food Technology Exchange (FTX) introduces innovative Canadian functional food ingredients to improve the nutritional properties of food and beverages.

The Market for Functional and Natural Health Foods is projected to be $128B by 2015 (PWC 2009 study), is growing fast at 12.5 % worldwide and the US accounts for 50% of the global market in functional foods.

FTX at Guelph
Food Technology Centre
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Sustainable Innovations™ helps to form commercial partnerships between Canadian ingredient, process technologies, and U.S. food manufacturers.

Sustainable Innovations™ supports this process with partnering meetings, organizing learning journeys to research and development centers, structured innovative (SIT) sessions, and web-based concept testing.

Sustainable Innovations™ offers brand and program development to bring these innovations successfully to market.

The US Food Technology Exchange (FTX) Initiative Phase 4 seeks potential innovation, R&D and commercialization partnerships as well as supply opportunities for Canadian companies and institutions that produce innovative ingredients and IP in the food technology area. The valuable part of the FTX program is the unique "market pull" framework for generating potential matches between US and Canadian companies, rather than a "technology push" from the Canadian side. The US companies are first probed about their technical, strategic or product needs, which are further defined as the basis for selecting and approaching potential Canadian participants.

Some of the Canadian companies involved are:

Extraction/Upcycling

• Nutra Canada is specialized in the production of high-quality extracts from fruits, vegetable and medicinal plants. For example Cranberries, Wild Blueberries and Orleans Strawberries are processed into standard powder, liquid extracts for foods and beverages.
• Radient produces high value natural substances by uniquely combining Microwave Assisted Processing (MAP™), a patented extraction platform. MAP™ is comprised of a portfolio of 12 core technology patents that the Company has licensed from Environment Canada. Radient's competitive advantages include some combination of: Increased compound selectivity, recovery, and purity; Efficient single stage extraction leading to increased processing speed and reduced solvent and energy usage; Ease of commercial scaleability and reduced capital cost; Reduced heat degradation of sensitive molecules.

Ingredient Improvement

• Enwave: Providing Radiant Energy Vacuum ("REV") Dehydration Technology systems. Enwave is a Vancouver-based industrial technology company, and UBC spin-off, with a new proprietary method of drying food, bulk liquids, biological and pharmaceutical material. Large, diverse global markets use drying to extend shelf-life, reduce shipping & storage costs, and create novel products.
• BioNeutra VitaSugar™ is a naturally sweet fiber made from a variety of starch sources (cereal or pulse crops). VitaSugar™ is an isomalto-oligosaccharide (IMO), a mixture of short chain carbohydrates, composed of glucose units that are linked in a unique way, rendering them resistant to digestive enzymes. These resistant carbohydrates stimulate healthy gut bacteria are called pre-biotics. VitaSugar/VitaFiber™ is ideal for use in beverage applications because of it’s stability profile at pH’s as low as pH (2.0) and high temperature. At this acidic pH, other sweeteners degrade. VitaSugar™ can be used as a low-calorie natural health sweetener with 1:1 substitution of sucrose (with only 25% calories of sugar).

Nutraceuticals/Probiotics

• Abiasa Abiasa supplies high quality ingredients and technical support in the area of probiotics, ferments and enzymes, particularly in the dairy sector. Abiasa is thus able to alter the taste, firmness and appearance between different cheeses. They work with bacteria that, once added to a dairy product, give the latter certain distinct properties. In addition to dairy products, the bacteria produced by Abiasa are likewise added to delicatessen and animal feed to prevent other kinds of noxious bacteria from proliferating in them.
  Abiasa's activities are focused in two sectors: industrial products and cottage-type products. In the industry segment, the company offers totally natural ingredients of the highest quality, as well as personalized technical support. The relationship with the customer begins with an idea or a question, and the Abiasa team takes over to develop a satisfactory formula, and this, in a strictly confidential fashion.
  In contrast to its industrial products, the firm's cottage-type products are made directly for the final consumer, so that the latter may make their own yogurt, cheese and kefir, rich in added value.
  Abiasa is a company that has worked and utilized the services of the Food Research and Technology Center at St. Hyacinthe.
• Omega 3 Ocean Nutrition  Ocean Nutrition Canada (ONC) is a global supplier of brand Omega-3 EPA/DHA ingredients, from fish oil, to the dietary supplement and healthy food markets under the brand MEG-3®.
  ONC is a privately held company. Its main shareholder is Clearwater Fine Foods Incorporated which has a controlling interest in Clearwater Seafood's Limited Partnership, the world’s largest integrated shellfish harvester and processor.
  ONC is in the business of researching, manufacturing, and marketing Omega-3 based ingredients that improve human health.
  These ingredients are used both in the dietary supplement and food categories. Other than the usage in Fish Oil, highly concentrated Omega-3 powders have been successfully incorporated, through the use of the company’s patented micro-encapsulation technology, Powder-loc™, into a wide range of food products including baked goods, milk, yogurt, juice, nutrition bars, and confectionary products. Ocean Nutrition Canada is a member of the Organic Trade Association and a member of the United Natural Products Alliance.
  This company has been able to establish cost-efficient manufacturing processes in Nova Scotia, producing products that can be marketed worldwide and ensuring that research and development expertise remains in the province. More than ninety per cent of ONC’s revenues come from international markets.
  ONC's oils have set global quality standards and are the first ingredients to achieve U.S. Pharmacopoeia verification. ONC has North America's largest privately owned research lab dedicated exclusively to the discovery of new marine natural products. The company has 45 scientists on staff researching bioactive ingredients from the marine environment including 12 PhDs. ONC has the most sophisticated analytical equipment in the industry, which guarantees the quality, efficacy and consistency of its natural Omega-3 fatty acids. Every batch of Omega-3 oil produced by ONC is put through more than 200 in-process and final quality checks before it leaves the plant.

Please contact me at graham@sustainableinnovations.biz if you have questions about the Food Technology Exchange and how your company can participate.