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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: To advance food quality and human nutrition through traditional and innovative food processing techniques.
Focus: The centre partners with the food and agri-food industries on collaborative research and pre-commercial development activities.
Services: The Richardson Centre is housed in a 55,000-sq.-ft. building on the University of Manitoba Fort Garry campus. It connects researchers from the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences with food and agriculture companies to conduct collaborative R&D. The centre offers:
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Human nutrition studies, with staff and equipment for controlled human studies looking at the effects of food products, extracts and specific nutrients on human nutrition and wellness.
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Food product development, from a 550-sq.-ft. provincially regulated commercial kitchen. The kitchen is also equipped to prepare fixed diets for nutritional trials.
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Milling and dry fractionation, with a HACCP-registered pilot-scale processing facility for debranning, milling and dry fractionation of grains.
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Analytical testing for ingredients, food products and grains.
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Tabletting and capsule filling equipment for pilot processing of dry ingredients or plant extracts for human nutrition.
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Lab-scale oil extraction.
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A dairy pilot plant, for the development and manufacture of dairy and plant-based food products.
What you need to know: The centre collaborates with internationally-recognized researchers from the University of Manitoba’s Department of Food and Human Nutritional Sciences. The department offers R&D services that include fully-equipped analytical, extraction, processing, cell and tissue culture and genomic laboratories.
Notable News: The centre was formerly known as the Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals. The name was changed in July 2022 to reflect its focus on collaborating with the food and agri-food industry to advance food quality and human nutrition through research and pre-commercial product development.
Get Involved: Contact Dr. Rotimi Aluko, director of the Richardson Centre, at (204) 474-8883, or at rotimi.aluko@umanitoba.ca. Or reach out to our Regional Innovation Director for the Prairies, Hubba Khatoon.
CFIN’s latest Innovation Booster Program focuses on Personalized Nutrition and Improving Human Health Through Food. The funding call opened on May 29, 2023, with all applications due by June 26, 2023. Winners will be announced in September 2023. For more content on the topic see IN 30 - Food as Medicine, and Explained: Personalized Nutrition.
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