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00:00:01
Dana McCauley | CFIN
60 Plays11 days ago
In this conversation with Dana McCauley, we dive into Canada’s Food Innovation Network and its vital role of investment and knowledge transfer within the agri-food industry.
We explore Canada’s strengths in upcycling, plant-based proteins, and functional ingredients, positioning both CFIN and the country as leaders in food tech. With economic and trade chaos making scaling in the U.S. more challenging, Dana and her team champion Canadian food businesses that are ready to diversify their markets, embrace innovation, and build global partnerships to stay resilient.
To learn more about how CFIN helps Canadian food tech companies visit https://www.cfin-rcia.ca/home.
To learn more about Ethical Food Group helps scale food and beverage brands sustainably, faster visit https://www.ethicalfoodgroup.com/.
Here’s a summary of this interview:
CFIN’s Mission & Impact – Dana McCauley explains how Canada’s Food Innovation Network (CFIN) drives investment and knowledge transfer to strengthen the food industry.
Connecting Traditional & Emerging Food Tech – CFIN bridges the gap between conventional food businesses and technology innovators, helping companies adopt new processes and ingredients to stay competitive.
Funding & De-risking Innovation – CFIN provides funding to de-risk new food technologies, covering up to 50% of costs for promising projects that can transform the industry.
Success Stories in Food Tech – Dana highlights projects like Chrono Grill, which optimizes burger cooking in Harvey’s restaurants, and Food Cycle Science, which turns food waste into compostable material.
Canada’s Food Innovation Strengths – The country is a global leader in upcycling, plant-based proteins, and functional ingredients, attracting international interest in its food tech sector.
Crush Dynamics & Sustainable Innovation – A BC-based company, Crush Dynamics, is repurposing winery waste into clean-label ingredients, reducing sugar and salt in food while creating new revenue streams.
Expanding Global Partnerships – CFIN is actively building international collaborations, with upcoming initiatives in Japan to create cross-border food tech opportunities.
Challenges in Scaling to the U.S. – With economic and trade uncertainties, Dana encourages Canadian food businesses to diversify into new markets beyond the U.S.
YODL as a Knowledge-Sharing Community – CFIN’s YODL platform has become an essential network for food professionals, allowing industry players to collaborate, solve problems, and share expertise.
The Future of Food Innovation – Dana believes that solving food system challenges requires collective effort, and CFIN is committed to supporting businesses that embrace technology, sustainability, and global growth.
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Transcript
Introduction to Dana McCauley and CFIN
00:00:00
Speaker
This is Aisle 42.
00:00:07
Speaker
In this conversation with Dana McCauley, we dive into Canada's Food Innovation Network and its vital role of investment and knowledge transfer within the agri-food industry.
Canada's Leadership in Food Tech
00:00:17
Speaker
We explore Canada's strengths in upcycling, plant-based proteins, and functional ingredients, positioning both CFIN and the country as leaders in food tech.
00:00:26
Speaker
With economic and trade chaos making scaling in the U.S. more challenging, Dana and her team champion Canadian food businesses that are ready to diversify their markets, embrace innovation, and build global partnerships to stay resilient.
Challenges in Scaling and Diversification
00:00:40
Speaker
Okay, let's get into it. I'm glad you're here because the future of food starts now.
00:00:47
Speaker
Dana, I'm really excited to connect. we've I think we're internet friends, maybe through LinkedIn or or emails or maybe trade shows. I know we sort of see each other around, but never actually had a chance to sit down and talk. So I'm so glad we're doing this.
00:01:01
Speaker
And in classic aisle 42 fashion, I want to kick off our time together with a big question. And that is, what's the one change in the food system that you would love to see that would excite you the most?
00:01:14
Speaker
That is a very, very difficult question to answer because you use the word system and everything is so integrated in
Innovation Adoption and CFIN's Role
00:01:25
Speaker
food. you know, that's one of the reasons why CFIN doesn't just focus on, you know, one part of the food sector, why we try to think about innovation and how it's going to, you know, be not just transformative for, you know, the the people who are are figuring it out, but then also be transferable.
00:01:43
Speaker
So I think the change would probably be related to that. And that would be to have just more and better knowledge transfer, more people being able to, you know, be inspired and adopt and fast track because of the learnings of what others have done, because,
00:02:00
Speaker
It's not you know like back in the day where the grocery store was the grocery store and the restaurant was the restaurant. And you know the the integrations are are so cross sector now that it's both exciting and wow, it just means more complex.
00:02:16
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's hard to isolate those things that we feel like that would really move the needle when in fact it does feel like all of them. ah To be honest, that's very on brand for you because when I first started learning about CFIN and everything that you're doing, I felt like I understood understood it all.
00:02:30
Speaker
And then the more I learned, the more you know my eyes were open to all the things you're doing. So why don't you take listeners through a little bit about how you guys support technology-driven food innovation, how you support these people, these businesses, these organizations that are leaning into some of the hard places of our food system.
00:02:50
Speaker
Yeah, it's interesting. The CPIN concept is is simple, but it's two-pronged. So sometimes people are like, oh you do that? um So basically, first and foremost, we are ah network. Like that network word in our name is so, so important because of that knowledge transfer and wanting to bring everybody along together. you we want to be able to, you know, make a very big tent that very efficiently forms collaborations and gets the right partners kind of working together.
Highlighting Funded Projects and Technologies
00:03:19
Speaker
But then, you know, our our key thesis and our what we really believe is that all the existing conventional food businesses can benefit from what technology innovators are working on and IP-based, you know, food innovators are working on.
00:03:35
Speaker
And so we try to fund projects that de-risk technologies, de-risk trying out new types of ingredients so that we can show the existing food businesses, hey, look at that. You can be more productive and more competitive, too, if you you know can find just a little bit of your precious time to to think about how to grow your business that way.
00:04:00
Speaker
And then we also are really trying because like we're just getting more and more food tech companies coming into the Canadian ecosystem by the day, yeah but they often are not coming from the food business. So they have so much to learn about what food industry really needs and is willing to pay for. So that's kind of it, and you know, from a to Z is that we've Try to bring everybody together and then we try to support some like best of the best projects to make this, you know, this example of innovation adoption that others can follow.
00:04:33
Speaker
And some of that support is funding. Yeah, absolutely. And when I talk about supporting projects, we can and, you know, we don't have unlimited amounts of money by any means.
00:04:44
Speaker
But we can often, if it's a great project, ah we can come in and we can give the partners up to 50% of the costs of doing that that commercialization, that de-risking of that technology, which is an amazing opportunity for industry. And we are so, so oversubscribed.
00:05:05
Speaker
When we put out a funding call and you know we can maybe make five or six awards, we'll get you know close to 100 applications. So we really are able to, one, get a really broad perspective of the great ideas out there.
00:05:20
Speaker
And two, we can really reward those who have put in the work and really you know identified a good value proposition and a really promising kind ah kind of technology. And that that feels pretty awesome.
00:05:33
Speaker
As it should. It's wonderful. What are some of the standout technologies, some of the groups that you guys have funded and supported that, you know, maybe sort of the average listener or sort of the, you know, the food curious person might see the connection to what they're buying in the grocery store?
00:05:50
Speaker
It's an interesting question to answer because we've funded over 90 projects so far. And as I say, I'm passionate about all of them. But i you know encourage my team and and ah when we work with the government, we encourage them to allow us to approach the way we do investments on sort of a portfolio basis. So we have things that, you know, they're going to get tested and adopted like that.
00:06:12
Speaker
And then we have others that are, you know, much longer runway. So for instance, we've done a lot of, I think, really exciting work in the cellular food business, not just cell cellular proteins, but, you know, setting up, you know, for all kinds of future products made on a local basis, including things like coffee and chocolate and that kind of stuff. But
The Role and Impact of Yodel
00:06:32
Speaker
That's a long way out, right? We're just at the the beginning of that journey.
00:06:36
Speaker
But a couple of things that are relevant to people both working in the food business and when they have, you know, after work, their consumer hat on that I think it might be interesting to talk about. One is a project we did with Recipe, you know, who owns so many great Canadian restaurant chains.
00:06:52
Speaker
and a company out of Oakville, a robotics company called Gastronomus. So they have worked together and be honest Gastronomus came to us with an idea that was we thought was really strong but was for a different kind of automation completely. But then when we got them together with Recipe, they identified this real problem. That's in Harvey's Hamburger Restaurants.
00:07:16
Speaker
That people were overcooking the burgers and there was one person like a staff member just like had to be over that hot grill all day. And they were just it just wasn't a great labor experience or, you know, customer experience because they were generally, you know, kind of overcooking the burgers to make sure they were safely cooked and all that stuff.
00:07:35
Speaker
And they developed something called the Chrono Grill, which is now in all kinds of Harvey's restaurants, getting rolled out to many more soon, where you put the patty on the grill and and it knows what kind of patty it is, how long it needs to be cooked.
00:07:50
Speaker
It probes it ah to make sure it's reached temperature. And now the person working the grill can also step away for a moment and do other things. And the throughput times at drive-throughs are faster and you know the burgers are juicier and more delicious, less shrink, all of those things. So business success from so many sides.
00:08:11
Speaker
Do they have a domestic version? I'd love to have that taking care of my food prep at home. I think it would be great. Who knows what's next? I think that the, you know, Harvey's first burger, grill burgers, you know, writ large, and then maybe they'll get to us.
00:08:26
Speaker
But something you can use at home that is also a really cool innovation that is, uh, been tested in coffee shops in Ottawa is Food Cycle Science.
00:08:37
Speaker
They have ah this home food cycler unit, which was very successful. And you can put all your scraps and stuff into it. It makes a, you know, breaks down into compost and you've got this great soil amendment at home.
00:08:51
Speaker
But they're like, oh this is good. But the real opportunity is in you know, like the deli department at the grocery store, like I say, a coffee shop. So we help them to work with Bridgehead Coffee in Ottawa to create the size of like your home dishwasher. And it they put all the coffee grounds in there, but they also put in all that compostable stuff like cups and forks and all that kind of thing that in home composters normally wouldn't break down. And even in some municipal kind composters doesn't.
00:09:22
Speaker
And they've developed this proprietary enzyme that goes into this mixture. And in 24 hours, they've got not stuff that they have to throw away, but something they can sell to you know garden centers and et cetera. So those are a couple of ah really practical projects that have just in the time it took for the projects to happen, got to market and are actually scaling.
00:09:46
Speaker
That's so cool. And a home for my plant-based fork that I put sometimes in my daughter's lunch. Yeah, where you're like, I don't see this breaking down anytime soon. That's a really interesting innovation.
00:09:57
Speaker
You spoke about the network and I see in behind you there, the Yodel poster. And I have to admit, when ah given my place in the food space, there's times where when I'm on Yodel, I kind of don't feel like I belong. And that's just because of the nature of, you know, like someone going deep on some ingredient or some piece of machinery. I'm like, I don't have anything to say about those things.
00:10:18
Speaker
But i'm I'm always trying to be there as as much as I can. I have heard countless times, and it's usually on places like LinkedIn where I hear it where someone's having a conversation about something that they need, and someone will say, drop it on Yodel, you're going to get the help you need, or some version of that of that mantra.
00:10:35
Speaker
That's awesome. I'm glad you're seeing that. but You made my day. And it's simply because you know sometimes you know LinkedIn can be a great spot. But ah what you guys have done with Yodel really does create a very focused network of people that are there and eager to help.
00:10:53
Speaker
And there isn't sort of as many people lurking in the bushes to sort of you know try to, I don't know, there's a little bit of predatorial action when it kind of goes out in sort of more of those public spaces. So I just want to say from an industry perspective, I hear people talking about Yodel in a way that I think is a real, is a testimony to your team's passion around building up that network.
Sustainability and Economic Development
00:11:14
Speaker
But my question for you is that network that I see, you know, on the sort of the peripheral on Yodel, what is it meant to your team to know that there are thousands of food professionals and innovators and people in the supply chain that are keeping tabs on each other and are eager to jump in and help each other?
00:11:33
Speaker
Well, you know, it's interesting, right? Because you you think of business as, you know, so competitive and, you know, you've got to keep your secrets, trade secrets, of course, ah you know, being um such a common term.
00:11:46
Speaker
And yes, there's obviously, know, you won't don't want to put your complete business plan out there in front of people. But it is very heartening to see how much sharing there is. And to me, the definition of community isn't just, you know, a group like Sifin putting things out there on a buffet like here, come and get this information here. Use our resource finder. Here is our funding finder.
00:12:10
Speaker
A real community does share. And it was about six months into Yodel where we started to see people going, oh, well, I can help. and And that was like such an amazing turning point and made us really realize that, yeah, you know, people get into the food business, get into the food business generally by choice.
00:12:29
Speaker
And they are about, you know, sharing and and improving. and And because there's so many entrepreneurial food businesses in Canada, like 90% of the food manufacturers in Canada and restaurants in Canada are run by, you know, teams of less than 10 people.
00:12:47
Speaker
And because of that, it really is, um you know, good neighbors make good neighborhoods kind of a vibe on Yodel. So I don't know if it could work in all geographies.
00:12:59
Speaker
But interestingly, people are noticing internationally and we're getting all kinds of inbound requests, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan, Spain, asking us how we did what we did.
00:13:12
Speaker
And we're excited. We're going to try in 2025 to work with a couple of them and test out how ah an international Yodel, even if it's just a community on our actual platform we have now,
00:13:24
Speaker
how that might work. So it'll be fun to see if this is a uniquely Canadian phenomena or if we can we can replicate it That'd be interesting to see that roll out. From a sustainability standpoint, what are some of the ways that your team is kind of governed or or guided, if you will, around these food, and these innovations, these whether it's technology or some sort of you know so sort of play that's out of the norm?
00:13:50
Speaker
I feel like there's, whether it's environmental or it's consumer focused, there's ways that you guys are leaning into the sustainability space around just driving impact through technology.
00:14:01
Speaker
What are some of the decisions you guys are making right now that you feel like are really leaning into some of the hard places of sustainability? It's been interesting to see because, you know, we're an economic development entity, right? so there's food systems entities like the Errol Food Institute and Food Tank and the FAO, and they do super important work and we have strong ties with all of them.
00:14:26
Speaker
But, you know, ultimately we're trying to Grow Canada's GDP, grow the tax base and create jobs. And what's been really kind of, I don't know, I guess in a way elegant to see is that so many of the opportunities to make your business more efficient and profitable come from figuring out what to do with your waste.
00:14:48
Speaker
And so a lot of what, you know, in academic papers is called sidestream valorization, which is just, you know, like, what are we going to do with this? ah Right now we pay to get rid of it or it's, ah you know, it's a problem.
00:15:01
Speaker
Those kinds of projects are really satisfying. So a company out of British Columbia called Crush Dynamics, who is blowing up and is one of our ultimate recipients of funding, they're a perfect example. So as you know, the wine industry in BC has been like oh my God, between fires and frost and freezing, like ah it's been a debacle of fire and ice for them the last few years. I heard actually that over a hundred wineries are for sale in BC right now.
00:15:31
Speaker
And so what Crush is doing is he's helped, they're helping them to, you know, find another revenue stream. So they take the waste from the wineries. They obviously pay for it.
00:15:43
Speaker
And then they use a proprietary type of process that includes fermentation and they take the polyphenols out of that waste and they've been able to create a clean label ingredient that companies like Purdy's and there's a really cool sauce company that they're using in their formulations to reduce how much sugar and salt they need to use.
00:16:05
Speaker
So we've got this upcycling thing that is like super cool in and of itself, but then there's also this wonderful health outcome for consumers. And in between those food manufacturers are saving money because sugar is really expensive, right? So that to me is like hits a whole bunch of the things you were just asking about.
00:16:27
Speaker
I love it. Yeah. Crush Dynamics is a great example. I'm really glad you highlighted them. I think that type of innovation right at the source of sort of like, you know, the processing of the organic ingredients and, you you know, the wine and just turning it into something beautiful. It's really, really great.
00:16:42
Speaker
I love it. Well, and it's just great, right? Because everybody wins. Like Crush is in the middle developing something new. That's awesome. But then, Every one of the partners is, like nobody's losing there and and the earth and certainly, you know, um Canadian economy are benefiting too.
Canada's Global Partnerships and Market Diversification
00:16:59
Speaker
You spoke to how people around the world are looking to what you guys are doing as sort of the Canadian landscape around innovation. What kind of opportunities do you see coming down the pike?
00:17:10
Speaker
Are Canadian innovators in the food space? Are they getting leaned on more and more internationally? What's the what's the temperature out there? So it's a really timely question. We have our first ever food system ah food tech ecosystem report dropping ah very soon. And in it, we have identified three domains where Canada is particularly regarded already.
00:17:36
Speaker
One is in upcycling, another is in plant-based proteins, and the other is in this functional ingredient space. And Canada's already made a reputation internationally there. But I do think there's, ah you know, the the types of technologies that I'm seeing come out of Canada are solving problems that are in global white spaces. And there's a big opportunity for Canadian companies to get their first set of customers and be, you know, ah be commercialized here in Canada. But scaling wise, I think we have a lot of amazing and exciting
00:18:13
Speaker
you know, IP to market internationally. And that's, ah you know, definitely something that my team and I have been been thinking a lot about. We'll be, ah we've been exploring some some global partnerships and I'll be going to Japan later this year because ah they too have a very well-developed food tech culture.
00:18:34
Speaker
And there's a lot of interesting opportunity and synergies for us to kind of lily pad their companies here and our companies there. And to, i guess, be kind of like chocolate and peanut butter or soy sauce and wasabi. I don't know what the right metaphor is this time. i' Just keep going. Maybe you've got three more there. Yeah.
00:18:52
Speaker
Yeah, and I think, you know, given the temperature right now with the United States, I think it's got a lot of innovators and food companies and food growers kind of looking to other countries and other continents where they feel like they're, you know, they might not have been able to lean into those quite as confidently in the past, where now they feel like it's a bit of an imperative to widen their export circle or widen their partnership ah network. So it'll be interesting to see how it shakes out over the next little while.
00:19:21
Speaker
Yeah, I think, you know, this is a really difficult time. And I used to work in a food manufacturing company where, you know, we 55% of our business was to the US and we really played the the dollar to our advantage.
00:19:38
Speaker
So I know how the people who are still working in those businesses are feeling right now with these looming a tariff threats. But at the same time, I think we're creative and the world is big and yeah, you know, anytime you have,
00:19:55
Speaker
cogs turning and change happening there's friction and discomfort but this could be a call to diversify and you know I remember when I used to run food starter the food business incubator and accelerator that the city of Toronto ah piloted and people would come in and they'd say what's what's your goal and they'd be like I want to be on the shelf at Sobeys or I want to be on the shelf at Loblaws and I'd be like well you know That's great. But having just one big customer does make you vulnerable. And I was always telling them, you know, diversify. Can you do the food service play here? you You know, maybe start out with independence, you know, get a good base.
00:20:35
Speaker
So sometimes that that common sense that, you know, we give to entrepreneurs, we forget about when things scale. Yeah. And scaling to the U.S. right now is looking a little bit more difficult than it already
Conclusion and Acknowledgments
00:20:48
Speaker
is. So it'll be interesting to see how it how it shakes out.
00:20:52
Speaker
Well, thank you for your time. Love the way that your team does what they do and how passionate everyone is. And it is the ah network that holds a lot of people together. And I think, like you said, so many people in the food space in Canada are either independents or small teams, or they feel isolated.
00:21:12
Speaker
And you guys have people in their region. You have people always at events and always looking ways to support, whether it's through funding or other ways. So thank you for all that you do. Thanks. you yeah This is a really nice to have someone like you have noticed us and to acknowledge that. i really appreciate it Thank you much.
00:21:33
Speaker
Thanks for listening to this episode of ILE 42. Please do yourself a favor. Sign up if you haven't done so already, but log in to CFIN's Yodel Online Community.
00:21:43
Speaker
Okay, that's it for me. I'm Corwin Hebert from Ethical Food Group, and I'll see in the future.
00:21:59
Speaker
Bye.