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Photo courtesy: Colleen dyck
works with 40 to 50 clients a year in food
development, processing and extrusion.
The federal facility is inspected for meat,
dairy and processed foods, and can also
work with pulses and grains.
“Our mandate is to serve the
Saskatchewan food industry, but we
do have clients from other provinces,
the U.S. and all over the world
asking for services,” said Carmen Ly,
communications director.
“An entrepreneur can come to us
literally with just a product idea,” said
Ly. “Our food scientists and technical
experts in food development, packaging
and labelling will take them through the
whole process and, because we have a
federal license, products manufactured
here can be sold across borders and
be compliant to food regulations. The
product is safe for consumption and
looks professional.”
For example, Best Cooking Pulses at
Rowatt, Saskatchewan, markets pea fibre
and pulse flours internationally; however,
it doesn’t make snacks.
“It works well to hand out snacks
made with our pulse ingredients when
we attend [trade] shows,” said Mike
Gallais, general manager. “We’ve been
using the FDC team in Saskatoon for
several years to make our pulse puffs
(similar to corn puffs) for snack food.
They process our blended pulse flours
through a high-pressure, high-heat
extruder. It’s to the point that staff are
almost like one of our team.”
“A small business can’t afford that kind
of expertise. We have the ideas. They
have the equipment and trained people.
They work on developing recipes and
labelling. We still do the marketing.”
ManItoBa fdC
Startups looking to get a fledgling idea
off the ground and into stores can look
to Manitoba for comprehensive, A-to-Z
help. Established in 1978, the Food
Development Centre at Portage la Prairie
is one of the oldest and largest FDCs in
Canada. It boasts 26 full-time staff and
60,000 square feet of space—two-thirds
of which is dedicated to end-stage
commercialization.
Companies rent space, bring in
equipment and start their production
in the pilot plant so they can begin
selling product before graduating to
their own facility, explained general
manager Tim Hore. The FDC even has
some specialty licenses for developing
organic products, hemp products and
nutraceuticals.
Colleen Dyck is one of the Portage la
Prairie FDC’s many success stories.
Her Gorp Clean Energy Bars started
in the kitchen of her Niverville farm
in 2004 as a homemade snack food
to help her train for amateur triathlon
events. Gorp bars are a dietitian’s
dream—natural energy with high
protein, fibre and antioxidants. Many of
the ingredients, such as hemp hearts,
originate on family farms.
“I needed something as a good source
of fuel,” said Dyck. “It needed to be
convenient and healthy and it needed to
taste good.”
Dyck brought the health bar idea and
recipe to the Portage la Prairie FDC.
“They were very good at helping me
with trying to commercialize and scale up
the recipe. That was one of my biggest
challenges,” Dyck said, noting the
FDC also helped with shelf-life testing,
labelling and packaging.
She worked with the FDC from 2005
until the Gorp bar’s commercial release
in 2012. Today, Gorp Clean Energy Bars
are sold in about 100 Manitoba retail
outlets and across Canada in Mountain
Equipment Co-op stores, in addition to
being test marketed at two major drug
store chains. They’re also a favourite of
the Winnipeg Jets hockey team.
“Every time I ever felt like giving
up along this adventure, God always
sent me a sign to keep going, whether
it was an encouraging email from a
customer or a great new account that
would somehow land in our laps,”
she said.
In total, there are 11 food and
bio-product technology centres
spanning the country from British
Columbia to Prince Edward Island,
loosely networked through Foodtech
Canada. Together, they serve over
1,000 companies each year to produce
innovative food, feed, natural health and
bio-product goods.
The Food Issue
2014
Grains
West
62
Colleen and Grant dyck created Gorp Bars. they are one of many success stories to
have come out of a Canadian food development centre.