Food centre to explore commercialization opportunities for new food products

Saskatoon, SK – The Saskatchewan Food Centre is examining commercialization opportunities for new food products with the help of federal government funding of nearly $800,000. The funding will support the purchase of a new extruder for research purposes.

The funding will enable the Food Centre to conduct pilot-scale processing tests on-site, as opposed to transporting material and personnel to the US for assessment. In addition to food products designed for human consumption, the technology can be used to test products for potential use in the pet, animal and aquaculture feed market.

“Western Canada has a strong base in agricultural production; this project will build on our renewable resources and provide development capacity to explore new products derived from plant based materials using extrusion technology,” said Dan Prefontaine, president, Saskatchewan Food Centre.

The new extruder will also be able to test oilseeds and plant-based materials to develop green environmentally friendly bio-polymers that could replace petroleum based plastics.