Do you know where innovative new food products and new food ingredients get their start? Our guest is Robin Young, Chief Operating Officer of the Food Development Centre. She shares how FDC is bringing together scientists and entrepreneurs to drive innovation and fuel our economy. The FDC is a trusted source of new food products and new food ingredients, and continued food testing to ensure quality foods make their way to market.
Do you know where innovative new food products and new food ingredients get their start? Our guest is Robin Young, Chief Operating Officer of the Food Development Centre. She shares how FDC is bringing together scientists and entrepreneurs to drive innovation and fuel our economy. The FDC is a trusted source of new food products and new food ingredients, and continued food testing to ensure quality foods make their way to market.
Welcome to the Manitoba Agriculture and food Knowledge Exchange. I'm Jordan Cieciwa and this podcast... this is one of those podcasts where you wake up in the morning and you get really excited to do, because I'm about to hear about innovators, innovation, new products, and basically what people do with the products that are being produced in this wonderful province of Manitoba. I've got Robin Young with me and, and Robin just... you know what I'm not going to do it. You introduce yourself. You tell us what you do.
Robin Young:Hi, I'm Robin Young. I'm the chief operating officer of the Food Development Centre, which is in Portage la Prairie Manitoba. And I get to work with a team of food, scientists and food technologists to help companies bring their food products to life.
Jordan Cieciwa:And you're underselling yourself because when you say team. I think oh, maybe one or two, but this is ah... I'm in a facility right now, I actually came down, I'm in your facility and this place is massive and there's people milling around everywhere. So how, how big is it?
Robin Young:We have 50,000 square feet or 50,000 square feet of pilot plant space, lab space, office space. And we work with food entrepreneurs. We have a team of 22 staff right now that are here to support food entrepreneurs on their journey.
Jordan Cieciwa:So let's jump right into this and I'm going to apologize to people on your behalf. You've got a little bit of a cough today so if that does happen, I welcome it because it makes it feel real. But let's talk about this. You're working with innovators and the food development centre. Not only is it the person, the foodie at home that says I make the best and whatever that may be, you help them take their passion to market, but you also get to work with the largest corporations there are, that have these research budgets. And you tell us what do you do with either one of them.
Robin Young:Both of those types of clients and entrepreneur with a concept or a really great recipe, also a company with a research team, looking at innovation. They both can work on developing their food products and ideas with the help from the food development centre. We help on the technical parts of that process. So like formulating, processing a product, shelf life testing, taste testing, to make sure the end product tastes good. That's important, regardless of what size of company or product you're trying to launch.
Jordan Cieciwa:And that's the interesting part because this is experts helping in some cases, experts, but in other cases, it's the consumer you're helping someone make the right decisions to produce the best product.
Robin Young:Food is such an interesting topic area because everybody eats every single day at a variety of different places, in different stations in life, but we all still have to consume meals. And so everyone has an opinion and a perspective on what the food industry is and what they need, what they would need to have it be improved for themselves. So we have a solution providers essentially coming to us saying, I don't see this in the marketplace and I want to take it there. Can you help me with this concept? I'm challenged on eating. My son has allergens, we h ear all, o r has allergies, rather. We hear all types of issues coming up for consumers and they decide, t hen they want to do something and help change the food industry by creating new products and creating solutions for other consumers that might be facing their same challenges. Companies are looking to do the same thing. They're wanting to make sure that consumers choose their products and put them in their shopping carts. And they're coming to us to get some support as they go through their innovation to create new products.
Jordan Cieciwa:And I think that's the word that I love that has been said in this building the most is, innovation. And that's, I mean, that's gotta be fun to everyday come to work and be helping people.
Robin Young:Yeah. And create, It's a big word, but it's often it can be very simple interventions in a process that are innovative. So a new way of looking at something. Sometimes we take technology from another industry and we'll apply it into the food industry and that's innovation because you're not now not sorting diamonds, but you're sorting French fries to help sort out colour and different defects, that type of thing.
Jordan Cieciwa:Interesting. And that's... I mean, these are the things that you help with as somebody comes in. So let's talk more about your next points on what you have done.
Robin Young:So FTC, we've got a long history in the province we've been around since 1978. And so many companies have used the centre over the course of their history and they've come for help and support to develop new products. One example, that's a really great one for us to talk about, I think, is Manitoba Harvest, which got it start at FTC in the 1990s and is now the world's largest hemp food company right here in the province of Manitoba. We've worked closely over the years with the University of Manitoba researchers as well. So ideas that happen in the lab we'll work with them to make sure we get larger volumes of products and we can test those new product ideas in a more industrial setting as they make their way to become a food processing company. Some really cool things that we're working on is plant-based ingredients. Of course, that's a buzz and a really interesting area in the food industry right now. And there's a ton of innovation that needs to go into that. We know what to do really well with our traditional proteins, eggs and legumes and, and livestock, for example, but there's other Manitoba crops that have protein in them as well. And we're looking at using those in new ways and also using products that would otherwise end up as a waste stream and making sure they get into the market as well.
Jordan Cieciwa:And this is something that your team does as a unit. So this is the interesting thing is... if I had a great idea and I come to the Food Development Centre and again, whether it is... I think I have the best pizza on the planet and I've wanted to make a crust my whole life, cause I love mine or I'm a large company that has a brand new product or flavour that I want to bring. You have a staff of 22 that all bring their expertise together.
Robin Young:That's right. So we've got food scientists on staff that have worked in various areas of the food industry. We've got a team of food technologists that know how to handle equipment and set up a processing line and monitor that, to make sure the product is going to be consistent throughout. We have regulatory specialists on site as well, that help with navigating that piece around your label. So nutrition facts table so where you list your calories and carbohydrate and fat content, we can provide that service as well. And also we can help with implementation of food safety and protocols in a processing facility to make sure that your products are consistent and consistently safe for your end consumers.
Jordan Cieciwa:I love it. So I want to hear another story. Tell me another one that you guys have done. Cause this is, you know, it's fascinating to walk around this building and see the success... that success counter that you have at the front. I buy those products and I've seen them, but it's great.
Robin Young:We do have a lot of brands that come out of the centre, we are sometimes strong. We struggle sometimes to tell the stories of what we do here because it's very confidential. But one story that comes to mind when you asked me about what else is exciting is we worked with an egg company who produces a liquid egg product. And of course, when you break an egg, you have an egg shell leftover. So they worked with FTC and our team here to reclaim the calcium from the leftover eggshells. It resulted in a new product for the company. So they've got more value coming out of their processing facility. They've got a savings in their costs that it was costing them to dispose of those eggshells in the landfill. And of course the reduced amount of waste going to the landfill that calcium can now be used to fortify other products, such as orange juice. They're looking at the pharmaceutical market and all from something that was just kind of overlooked as a waste product, eggshells are not a social license or public trust issue in the mind of a consumer. I would think to go to landfill, they'd break down naturally, but what an awesome opportunity to capture that calcium out of there and put it into other uses.
Jordan Cieciwa:And that you nailed it right there is like, you know, I don't mind hearing an eggshell was in, I know that's going to biodegrade, but to think that, you know, it didn't need the transport costs, or now I've got also a better cost effective high calcium product to shop around and see those start to appear and it's a Manitoba concept. That's, that's what gets me excited, right? Is this is homegrown innovation and that's the good stuff right there. What else have you done? Cause I understand you work with the University of Manitoba.
Robin Young:So our work with the U of M has taken us over many, many years through a variety of different types of products and projects together. We work with them on dairy products. So we will refer clients to them that want to work on cheese and yogurt and ice cream products. But we are working with them currently on looking at using different plant-based ingredients in some of those formulations to sustain what the consumers are looking for, and also, create new products out of Manitoba ingredients. We've done some work on, again, scaling up those research projects to make sure that the company can see value as they go to a larger scale process.
Jordan Cieciwa:Now let's look, because you alluded to it just off air when we were chatting. And as you were touring me around this building that I found fascinating is that you will work with large corporations or large manufacturers to actually ensure that as they change some of their ingredients or how, what fascinated me is if they feed an animal differently, or if they do something in production, this is actually, those companies will make sure it's the same product going to market and they'll come to you to ensure. So fill us in on that. Cause it, it blew my mind.
Robin Young:That is definitely something the centre has worked on for many different companies in the different areas of the sector. So for one example, would be working with the pork industry and Manitoba livestock companies, as you say, are conducting different trials. So feeding trials or breeding trials to improve their production standards, what they want to make sure that the meat products they're creating at the end are not impacted or affected in any negative way. So FTC will do the sensory evaluation, which is a series of taste and quality tests to verify that the product hasn't changed from the original product, which a companie's customer has come to expect or if it has changed that it's an improvement either to quality or health properties of the end product.
Jordan Cieciwa:And that, to me, that's gotta be fun for you guys as well is to have that trust from producer and consumer.
Robin Young:It's really rewarding that we can take a look at the whole value chain. When we think about growing agriculture, commodities, livestock, and crops in the province, and making sure that the end use is going to be right for the food industry and for the consumer at the end of that.
Jordan Cieciwa:Because I know that the faculty of agricultural and food sciences, they do a lot of work ensuring care and concern of animals to know that care and concern for animals, then that producer can make sure that their end product to the consumer doesn't change. That's fascinating to me that that's all part of the overall concept.
Robin Young:One of our concepts, part of our mandate, a part of our commitment is that we want to utilize every product that's grown, whether it be an animal or a plant to its full capacity. So not throwing away the eggshell, making sure that you're not going to change the quality of an animal. So it's not going to be accepted by the consumer. All of those pieces are part of us maintaining competitive industry in the province, but also making sure that we're taking really, really good stewards of the land and the resources that we're putting into creating these products in the first place.
Jordan Cieciwa:Well said, very well said. And I guess that's the food development centre that is a brief overview. And like I say, that tour, seeing this place, watching people do their jobs with my hair net and lab coat on, that was fascinating to me. And I can't thank you enough for joining us on the podcast to just kind of give us that overview of what the food development centre is doing, what Manitoba is doing and the exciting things to come.
Robin Young:Thank you so much for the opportunity. And with... as I was telling you earlier, we like to promote that people that go to work in a hair net are good people and there's lots of them in Manitoba and we'd be happy to share more stories. And so come back.
Jordan Cieciwa:I absolutely will because I've got more questions. Thanks again so much. We'll talk again soon.