NAIT's Centre for Culinary Innovation is embarking on a new waste-reduction project worth $1 million as it continues to develop groundbreaking products with local food and beverage companies.
Formed in 2019, the centre is part of NAIT's Applied Research department. A core focus is product development, especially for plant-based foods. Recent highlights include developing a dairy-free liqueur, creating misos from pulses, and collaborating with a chocolate scientist to increase production.
On July 3, Dan Vandal, the minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada pledged $1,038,538 toward NAIT's applied research, including work at the centre looking into how the plant-protein industry can "reduce food waste by converting starch by-products into high-value sugars," the announcement said.
"There's so much opportunity out there to valorize what we used to consider waste, and what we would then just use as animal feed," Linda Ho, the applied research chair in agri-food sustainability for NAIT Applied Research told Taproot about the latest project. "(We're) really going back to the idea of regenerative ag and using everything that comes from a plant. Our ancestors used to do that all the time."
Ho believes starch byproducts from pulses (think peas, beans, and lentils) could be the next cornstarch, an ingredient that's ubiquitous in processed foods. Ho was promoted to the chair position last month and still serves as the centre's lead food scientist. The centre has experience in experimenting with pulses, partly from producing pulse-based misos, typically made with soybeans, as funded by Results Driven Agriculture Research and Alberta Pulse Growers. The goal was to develop an ingredient that enhances the umami flavour of plant-based meat substitutes, but NAIT's misos have more chocolatey and floral flavour notes.
"We tried something, it didn't work, and so we pivoted," Ho said. "It's kind of an introduction to the Western palate. How can you actually use these ingredients beyond just as a meat substitute? It's using innovation and weaving it into something that is more approachable." (The pulse-based miso is now used in offerings at Tryst in St. Albert.)
The centre also works with Edmonton companies to solve product challenges. Hansen Distillery developed its dairy-free, oat milk-based liqueur with NAIT. Hansen won a Made In Alberta Award in 2021 for its Salted Caramel Cream Liqueur. Its intention to create a dairy-free alternative with NAIT, though, was complex and lasted four years. There were supply chain issues during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the concept is also difficult to perfect. Roughly 80 recipes were tested.
"Some of the initial ingredients that were used were sourced from Europe, so when we started to look at supply chain and cost, it was too expensive," Ho said about developing the liqueur's unique formula. "Bringing it back to local when we brought our food scientists in really pushed it to be able to be commercialized with (NAIT food scientist) Chris Song … He really focused on the locality of ingredients and whether or not you could actually source them."
Another Edmonton company, 7 Summits Snacks, now works with the centre to find high quality ingredients at the right price and tweak its recipes to allow it to scale up its production. Co-founder Kristyn Carriere is herself a chocolate scientist who has worked for industry leaders like Cadbury in Birmingham, U.K. The company produces dark chocolate snack bars for endurance athletes and a line focused on superfoods. Products from 7 Summits are available at more than 100 vendors in Canada. Its goji berry and Himalayan salt-flavoured Everest superfood bar won Best Snack at the Alberta Food Processors Association Awards last month.
Linda Ho, the applied research chair in agri-food sustainability for NAIT Applied Research, serves as the lead food scientist at its Centre for Culinary Innovation. Her team has worked on novel production of misos, a dairy-free liqueur, and more. Now, they are working with 7 Summit Snacks to scale-up its recipes and with $1 million in federal funding to reduce waste in the plant-based food industry. (NAIT)
"Understanding consumer perceptions — their expectations and how to find the best ingredient that matches their expectations — was a lot of what I did in those big, global, international companies. I've carried that forward into my own brand development," Carriere told Taproot. "I have a good understanding of our consumer and what they like and what they don't like, especially in the frame of having an active lifestyle."
Carriere started 7 Summits with her sister, Leanna Carriere, in 2019. The company has manufactured about 130,000 snack bars to date and brought in approximately $130,000 in revenue last year. It also ran two successful crowdfunding campaigns for $10,000 each. Its ATB Boostr campaign in 2021 generated 111% of its goal and its Indiegogo campaign this year generated $11,250. The latter helped the sisters launch two new flavours: Carstenz and Vinson.
Carriere also participated in the Stacy's Rise Project in 2023, a mentoring opportunity with business people from PepsiCo and Frito-Lay. It taught her non-science business skills such as marketing.
"Coming from a product development and research and development background, that's something that is second nature to me," Carriere said. "However, marketing is something that I'm learning on the fly, and so is sales. I was able to work with a marketing manager who was able to help me understand my consumer, our unique selling points, and really tailor our messaging to buyers."
Kristyn Carriere (centre) is a chocolate scientist and a co-founder of 7 Summits Snacks. She's working with NAIT's Centre for Culinary Innovation to scale up her product recipes, including for the award-winning Everest snack bar. She's pictured here accepting an Alberta Food Processors Association Award from Stacey Gordon of Farm Credit Canada (left) alongside her sister and co-founder Leanna Carriere (right).(Supplied)
Carriere aims to wrap the 7 Summits research and development with NAIT by the end of the summer, but there's no hard deadline or a final tab for access to the centre. The end result she's aiming for is to scale up the company's production.
Meanwhile, Ho is ready to start another project that she can't detail yet due to an agreement with its funder. (She is bound to non-disclosure agreements with some businesses who've used the centre, as well.) But she did provide a teaser.
"At the core of our centre is using product development as a lever to solve problems," Ho said. "We're looking at this project in terms of food security, which I'm super excited about."
Correction: This file has been updated to correct the recipients of Prairies Economic Development funding.