Canada has an extensive range of research centres, food incubators, accelerators and labs supporting food and beverage innovation through the research they do and/or the services they offer. Each week throughout 2023, we’ll be highlighting an organization that’s supporting food innovation in Canada.
Mission: CSI is an innovation hub that helps companies to extract more value from sustainable seafood harvests.
Focus: The centre supports entrepreneurs with business development, public education, and workforce attraction projects to foster ongoing innovation. It focuses on companies producing value-added seafood products, and products that complement seafood products such as sauces, dips or seasonings.
Services: CSI helps seafood entrepreneurs access applied research, infrastructure, equipment, and services. It offers businesses support with project development, coaching, workshops, and event space rentals, and has a provincially inspected commercial-grade kitchen suitable for creating institutional products, preparing seafood-based meals and snacks, developing bench-top products, and demonstrating new recipes and culinary techniques in-person or virtually. The 2,000-sq.-ft. kitchen features:
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A commercial induction range
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Five sinks (2 x 2-bay washing stations)
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Coolers and freezers (reach-in)
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Dry storage
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A commercial dishwasher
What you need to know: To help support BC food entrepreneurs, CSI regularly partners on projects with Vancouver Island University’s culinary arts department as well as other faculties. The centre is based in the school’s Deep Bay Marine Field Station, and is part of the BC Food Hub Network.
Notable News: Each month CSI hosts a public lunch-and-learn series called Let’s Talk Seafood…and eat it too! designed to highlight the impacts of food-based public education on citizens’ perceptions of shellfish farming. Past projects include the Oyster Challenge, which showcased the use of oysters processed with High Pressure Processing (HPP); a partnership with Omega Pacific Hatcheries to help capture maximum value for its farmed sturgeon harvest; and a project to assess Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) as a treatment to keep Japanese scallops alive for transportation.
Get Involved: Contact Debra Hellbach, manager of the Centre of Seafood Innovation at Debra.Hellbach@viu.ca, or reach out to our Regional Innovation Director Lavina Gully.