GUELPH (ONTARIO), MAY 27, 2024 - Today, the Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN) released its latest whitepaper, Unpuzzling Food Inflation: How Innovation Adoption by Canada's Food Processing Sector will Flatten the Curve. Providing an in-depth analysis of the critical issues facing Canada's food and beverage sector, the whitepaper illustrates how technology and innovation offer tangible solutions to combat rising food costs.
Recent statistics underline the urgency: between February 2021 and February 2024, Canadian grocery prices jumped by 21.6%, impacting 6.9 million Canadians with food insecurity. Dana McCauley, CEO of CFIN, highlights the need for a strategic pivot to innovation. "The relentless rise in food prices is a complex issue, driven by factors such as rising input costs, labour shortages, and macroeconomic pressures. Our white paper demonstrates that adopting innovative technologies is not just beneficial but essential for stabilizing food prices and ensuring economic stability," McCauley stated.
Key examples of innovative Canadian solutions from the whitepaper include:
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Reducing Input Costs: Companies like Crush Dynamics Inc. are at the forefront of reducing input costs through innovative fermentation processes that transform byproducts into valuable food ingredients. These initiatives significantly cut costs and enhance food quality, making production more sustainable and economically feasible.
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Addressing Labor Shortages: The food and beverage sector is facing a critical shortage, with a shortfall of 50,000 workers and an anticipated 66,800 retirements by 2030. To mitigate this, CFIN supports the adoption of AI and robotics to enhance productivity and reduce reliance on manual labour. Innovations like those from DeepSight Réalité Augmentée, which employs augmented reality for faster and more effective training in food processing sectors, are instrumental. Their technology enables more rapid onboarding and upskilling of employees, thus efficiently addressing the labour gap.
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Minimizing Food Waste: CFIN has championed the development of technologies designed to reduce waste throughout the food production cycle. This includes an X-ray system that efficiently identifies contaminants to prevent waste and technologies that degrade bioplastics into beneficial soil additives, promoting sustainability and reducing environmental impact.
These initiatives underscore CFIN's commitment to leveraging technological innovation to tackle the pressing issues of labour shortages, high input costs, and significant food waste in the Canadian food sector.
"By combining smart glasses with real-time assistance, DeepSight Réalité Augmentée is accelerating onboarding, enhancing safety, and boosting overall efficiency," said Nicolas Bearzatto, President of DeepSight Réalité Augmentée. "Our immersive training platform allows workers to interact with both their physical environment and virtual elements, ensuring they quickly become productive while minimizing risks. As smart glasses become more prevalent, our technology seamlessly merges the digital and physical worlds, streamlining workflows and addressing critical labour shortages in the food processing sector. These and other innovative solutions developed in Canada help address the labour challenges, ultimately contributing to a more efficient and resilient food supply chain."
CFIN also details how 70% of the food consumed in Canada is produced domestically, presenting a significant opportunity to impact the entire supply chain through innovation. "This is a story that hasn't been fully told," added McCauley. "By investing in technology, we can tackle these challenges head-on, making our food systems more competitive, productive, and sustainable."
CFIN has grown to over 5,000 members, driving forward technologies that promise to mitigate the trend of rising food prices. The organization is poised to expand further, aiming to catalyze innovation across Canada’s food and beverage sector.
The Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN) is a national organization that's stimulating transformative and transferrable innovation within the Canadian food sector. CFIN has over 5,000 members from across the food value chain -- including manufacturers, processors,
distributors, operators, tech companies, funders, and innovators – and connects the Canadian food ecosystem to fresh insights, ideas, and technologies to grow their business and increase their innovation capacity. CFIN's free membership includes access to exclusive funding programs, five Regional Innovation Directors, and YODL.