Blogs

Catch Up: Protecting Your IP in China—What Canadian Foodtechs Need to Know

By Community Manager posted 14 days ago
Missed our latest webinar on safeguarding your intellectual property (IP) in China ? You can now watch the full recording here . Hosted by CFIN’s VP of Programs, Alex Barlow, the session brought together experts from the Embassy of Canada to China, McCain Foods, and the Trade Commissioner Service (TCS). Together, they broke down how China’s rapidly evolving IP landscape works in practice—and what Canadian foodtech companies must do to avoid costly, sometimes irreversible mistakes. China remains a major opportunity for innovative food and agtech firms, but it’s also one of the ...

Catch Up: Boosting Business Productivity with BDC’s Chief Economist – Recording Now Available

By Community Manager posted 27 days ago
Missed Boosting Business Productivity with BDC’s Chief Economist ? You can now watch the full recording here . Hosted by CFIN CEO Dana McCauley in conversation with Pierre Cléroux , VP Research and Chief Economist at BDC, the session dug into Canada’s productivity gap, why it matters for food and beverage processors, and what practical steps SMEs can take to improve efficiency and margins without betting the farm (or factory) on massive capital projects. Three Key Takeaways 1. Productivity is about profit and resilience, not working harder. Pierre was blunt: if your business ...

Catch Up: Data that Delivers: Unpuzzling Consumer & Category Insights with NIQ Recording Now Available

By Community Manager posted 29 days ago
Missed Data that Delivers: Unpuzzling Consumer & Category Insights with NIQ ? You can now watch the full recording here . The session brought together NielsenIQ’s Francis Parisien and Cedric Bélanger with founders Suzie Yorke (The Little Cacao Co., Love Good Fats) and Chris Magnone (Temple Lifestyle Brands / Thirsty Buddha, Rise Kombucha). Together, they broke down how Canadian food and beverage SMEs can use data to launch smarter, grow faster, and avoid expensive missteps—and why having NIQ category snapshots included in a CFIN+ membership gives smaller brands a level of insight they normally ...

Friday Food Innovation Round-Up – October 31, 2025

By Community Manager posted 10-31-2025
Canada’s food sector is starting to feel the rumble of big structural shifts. As Ottawa rewires its trade strategy and budget priorities, new capital and policy signals are emerging for innovators. This week’s roundup captures a few of the tremors. Recent highlights included: 🌐 Canada targets agri-food export growth beyond the U.S. 💸 A new $ 2 0M fund backs immigrant-led foodtec h ventures across Canada ♻️ Ontario innovators reframe food waste as a food security asset 🛠️ McCain, Danone, and Tim Hortons are all hiring for food innovation leadership roles Let’s dive ...

Atlantic Canada’s Foodtech Frontier: Turning Regional Ingenuity Into Global Solutions

By Community Manager posted 10-21-2025
Atlantic Canada’s food sector has always punched above its weight, driven by resourcefulness and a focus on practical innovation. Its foodtech leaders are extending that tradition into new territory —from smart packaging to circular materials to autonomous service systems. The region’s Foodtech Frontier 25 winners are showing how small-market ingenuity can create globally relevant technologies. SmartSkin Technologies — Digital Twins for Smarter Packaging Lines Fredericton ’s SmartSkin Technologies has become a global leader in industrial sensing. Its patented “digital container” technology embeds pressure and ...

Québec’s Foodtech Frontier: Engineering Innovation From the Ground Up

By Community Manager posted 10-20-2025
Québec’s foodtech sector is a compelling blend of biology , engineering, and design. Its innovators are creat ing innovative ingredients , AI -powered logistics platforms , and advanced automation systems to make the entire food value chain smarter, safer, and more sustainable. From microbial food safety breakthroughs to decentralized manufacturing, the province’s Foodtech Frontier 25 winners demonstrate how research-driven innovation can translate into transformative industrial progress. Qualtech — Building the Backbone of Sustainable Food Processing Québec City’s Qualtech ...

Friday Food Innovation Round-Up – October 17

By Community Manager posted 10-17-2025
Canada’s food innovators aren’t standing still. With new trade links in Latin America, emerging clean-label opportunities, and fresh capital for homegrown biotech, the sector is pushing into new markets and redefining what Canadian-made means on the world stage. Recent h ighlights included: 🌎 Canada expanded foodtech ties with Mexico 💡 Canadian foodtec h firms ma ke global Cleantech 50 to Watch List 🍄 Maia Farms secured $1.75 M from Genome BC 🧠 Cronomete r is hunting for its next food data mind in BC Let’s dive in. Canada Trade ...

British Columbia’s Foodtech Frontier: Sustainability Meets Scale

By Community Manager posted 10-17-2025
British Columbia continues to set the national pace for sustainable food innovation. From fermentation to packaging to process technology, the province’s Foodtech Frontier 25 winners are proving that environmental impact and commercial growth can advance together — and that the West Coast’s combination of science, design, and systems thinking is quietly reshaping how food gets made. EnWave — Drying Technology That’s Changing Global Supply Chains Vancouver-based EnWave has transformed one of food manufacturing’s oldest processes: dehydration. Its patented Radiant Energy Vacuum (REV™) technology uses controlled microwave ...

The Prairies’ Foodtech Frontier: Precision, Practicality, and Scale

By Community Manager posted 10-16-2025
Long a hub for agricultural innovation, t he Prairie provinces are now bringing th eir unique mix of creativity, pragmatism, and entrepreneurialism to foodtech . The region’s Foodtech Frontier 25 honourees span data science, manufacturing modernization, and workplace systems, each show ing how technology rooted in pra ctical solutions to big problems can reshape the foundations of our food sector from the inside out. BetterCart Analytics — Real-Time Market Intelligence for a Price-Driven Sector Based in Saskatoon, BetterCart Analytics helps grocers and CPG brands make ...

Ontario’s Foodtech Frontier: Innovators Defining the Next Era of Canadian Food

By Community Manager posted 10-15-2025
Ontario’s foodtech ecosystem has matured into one of the country’s most advanced — home to companies turning science and engineering into scalable solutions for food, health, and sustainability. The inaugural Foodtech Frontier 25 honourees from the province reflect that strength: evidence-based, export-ready, and deeply pragmatic about the challe nges they’re solving. Enhanced Medical Nutrition — Redefining Recovery Through Clinical Nutrition Toronto-based Enhanced Medical Nutrition (EMN) is changing how hospitals approach recovery. Its ENROUTE® line — regulated by Health Canada and the FDA — delivers ...

Cutting Lines, Cutting Costs: How One Nova Scotia Startup Aims to Transform Stadium Concessions in Japan

By Community Manager posted 10-10-2025
This October, CFIN is bring ing three Canadian innovators to SKS Japan — the country’s largest foodtech conference and one of the most influential gatherings of its kind in Asia. SKS Japan brings together food manufacturers, retailers, tech firms, investors, and policymakers to explore how technology can reshape food systems. For CFIN, it’s a chance to put Canadian companies on the global stage, open doors to export markets, and showcase the kinds of solutions that can solve Japan’s most pressing food challenges. Dartmouth-based Dispension Industries is one of those companies. With Japan’s legendary vending machine culture, ...

Can Canadian Plant-Based Innovation Pass Japan’s Seafood Test? NS/TX Industries is Betting on It

By Community Manager posted 10-09-2025
SKS Japan is the country’s largest foodtech conference, bringing together global innovators and Japanese industry leaders across foodservice, retail, processing, and investment. CFIN is helping Canadian companies seize the opportunity to connect with this ecosystem. For Toronto’s NS/TX Industries, that means introducing their breakthrough plant-based salmon to one of the world’s most discerning seafood markets. We connected with NS/TX founder and CEO Chris Bryson to discuss how the company plans to use SKS Japan to build credibility, forge partnerships, and validate its ingredients and manufacturing technology in this high-potential market. ...

Closing the Loop: Japan’s Food Waste Challenge Meets Canadian Foodtech Innovation

By Community Manager posted 10-08-2025
This October, the Smart Kitchen Summit (SKS) Japan will gather hundreds of companies, investors, policymakers, and researchers to explore the future of food and foodtech . To make sure Canadian innovators are part of that conversation, CFIN is leading a group of member companies to Tokyo to showcase solutions that can compete on a global stage. Among those companies is Ottawa-based Food Cycle Science, whose FoodCycler ® units turns household and commercial food scraps into a nutrient-rich soil amendment. We spoke with CEO Bradley Crepeau about why Japan’s tightening waste regulations make this the right time to enter the market, and ...

Canada’s Foodtech Innovators Go Global at SKS Japan 2025

By Community Manager posted 10-07-2025
This October, the Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN) will lead three of its member companies to Tokyo for SKS Japan 2025 —the country’s largest foodtech conference and one of Asia’s most influential gatherings of its kind. Japan is something of a paradox for food innovators: a market that eagerly embraces new ingredients and technolog ies , ye t uncompromising in its expectations for safety, quality, and compliance. It’s a tough nut to crack, but the opportunities are nearly unmatched . Food waste remains a national priority, labour shortages are testing the limits of hospitality and retail, and seafood— ...

Friday Food Innovation Round-Up – October 3, 2025

By Community Manager posted 10-03-2025
We’re suckers for a great “best-of” list . W e’re also suckers for great ice cream . Suffice it to say, it’s been a pretty great few weeks for food innovation. Highlights include d : 🌎 EDC scaling up support for Canadian food exporters chasing new global markets 🥇 CFIN announcing the winners of the inaugural Foodtech Frontier List 🌱 Protein Industries Canada investing $1.3M to strengthen local food supply 🍦 C hapman’s pour ing $200M+ into expanding ice cream manufacturing in Ontario Let’s dive in! Canada Trade Brief: EDC Scales Support as Canadian ...

How CFIN Helped Maia Farms Kickstart a Canadian Plant Protein Revolution

By Community Manager posted 10-02-2025
Editor's Note: Photo Courtesy of Maia Farms In 2021, the three co-founders—and three sole employees—of Maia Farms were working out of a small, subleased lab in North Vancouver, dedicated to solving on of the most urgent challenges facing our food system : how can we produce more protein without pushing the plane t past its limits? The team was convinced they had an answer . They were working with mycelium —the dense, protein-packed root-like structure of mushrooms that grows quickly, uses minimal land and water, and can be cultivated year-round in indoor, controlled environments. It had all the makings of a more resilient, ...

Friday Food Innovation Round-Up – September 18

By Community Manager posted 09-19-2025
New Canadian foodtech venture accelerators, big funding wins, and even bigger collaborations . Here’s some of the food innovation highlights from the past two weeks: 🌎 Canada rolls out new trade resilience supports while deepening ties with Mexico 🌱 MaRS launches national Food & Ag t ech Mission with FCC backing 🥗 Phytokan a & Maia Farms announce $32.5M fava bean processing project in Alberta ☕ RFINE raises $1.7M to scale upcycling tech for spent coffee grounds Let’s dive in! Canada–U.S. Trade Brief: Buying Local, Thinking Global ...

Catch Up: Inside Canada’s Food Lab’s Webinar Recording Now Available

By Community Manager posted 09-16-2025
Missed last week's I nside Canada’s Food Labs webinar ? You can now watch the full recording . This session—featuring experts from Vineland Research and Innovation Centre , Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada , and BioFoodTech —offered an inside look at how Canada’s leading food labs support product development, scale-up, and commercialization. You’ll hear: How research centres help food businesses turn R&D into market-ready products What kinds of facilities, equipment, and expertise are available to startups and SMEs ...

From Coast to Crisper: How Seaweed Could Change the Future of Food Packaging

By Community Manager posted 09-10-2025
Editor's Note: Image by the Globe and Mail Plastic p ollution is a glob e-spanning problem, the consequences of which are often most visible in our oceans — where plastic waste collects, degrades into microplastics, and wreaking havoc on both marine ecosystems and human health. Yet, the oceans may also hold the solution s we need to move to a post-plastic planet. The team of scientists and innovators behind Vancouver-based PhyCo Technologies b elieve s seaweed is the future of food pack aging , and they are putting the stuff to work to replace petroleum-based plastics with compostable, ...

How to Run Grocery Ads That Actually Drive Sales

By Community Manager posted 09-08-2025
The way consumers shop for groceries has fundamentally changed — they’re surfing, scrolling, swiping, and streaming their way through countless product inspirations during their shopping journey. For CPG brands, this shift has unlocked enormous potential for reaching consumers at multiple touchpoints. But it’s also introduced a challenge: how do you efficiently manage advertising in this dynamic, increasingly fragmented landscape—and prove your ads are really working? Reaching Today’s Grocery Consumers Where They Are Today’s consumers have grown accustomed to having everything they need at their fingertips. Product inspiration ...