The benefits of coconut water have quickly catapulted the electrolyte-rich elixir from an exotic liquid sipped from the shell by locals and tourists to the epicentre of an entirely new beverage category: plant waters. And while coconut water consumption continues to grow and evolve in the natural beverage space, which intersects with the similarly expanding functional foods category, it now …

Smoothies make breakfast fun again, says Dr. Mehmet Oz. The American cardiothoracic surgeon and television health guru has been promoting smoothies as part of his Oz Cleanse, which he developed with The Biggest Loser dietitian, Rachel Beller. “All too often, we’re skipping what truly is the most important meal of the day because we’re rushing out the door,” Oz says. …

FedDev Ontario Minister of State Gary Goodyear and Newmarket-Aurora, ON, MP Lois Brown announced recently an investment of up to $995,000 for Gum Products International Inc. to expand its line of food safety products, introduce a new line of products and extend its global market reach in the food processing and biotechnology sectors. FedDev Ontario’s repayable contribution, through the Investing …

Meal Planner Pro launches free, healthy meal planning solution Meal Planner Pro, a tech startup based out of Edmonton AB, is a free, comprehensive health and nutrition website that brings an end-to-end meal planning solution to the table. With personalized planning tools, more than 800,000 recipes, and 70,000 brand name grocery products, Meal Planner pro aims to help busy families …

According to the recently completed study, “Economic Impact to Manitoba of Increased Adoption of Healthy Food and Food Ingredients for Chronic Disease Management and Mitigation,” there could be substantial potential savings of between $360 to 400 million annually to the health care system in Manitoba by changing eating habits to include more functional foods – a reduction of more than …

Ann Payne’s Caveman Foods Ltd. recently announced it would provide up to 12 cases (or 144 individual servings) of its raw, unpasteurized drink, shipped free to Canadian universities or labs for studying the link between unpasteurized fermented foods and gut bacteria. Gourmet foodies have long been searching out the fresh, unpasteurized drink known as water kefir for its taste and …

This year’s winner of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Prairies – Manufacturing award is Mike Fata, Co-founder and CEO of Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods, the world’s largest hemp food manufacturer to grow, make and sell its own brand of hemp food products. Entrepreneurs from across the Prairies were judged based on their vision, leadership, innovation, financial performance, community engagement, …

Natallia V. Varankovich | Michael T. Nickerson | Darren R. Korber* The microbiota of the human gastrointestinal tract (GIT) is extremely complex, consisting of bacteria, archaea, some protozoa, anaerobic fungi and different bacteriophages and viruses, with more than 1,000 species and up to 5×1011 (100 billion) bacterial cells per gram of intestinal contents1. According to American Society for Microbiology (2008), …

Aleksandar Yovchev1 | Martin Scanlon2  | Michael Nickerson1* Dietary intake of sodium chloride (NaCl, commonly known as salt) has increased considerably over the last few decades due to changes in the human diet. The main source of NaCl in our diet is processed foods, accounting for ~70-75% of the total intake, with cereal and cereal products contributing 30-35% of overall …

Welcome to the first Regulatory Arena of 2015: the Year of the Clean Label! The clean label has been identified as one of the key trends of 2015, and in recognition of the importance of the clean label to Canadian consumers and industry, we will be devoting all four 2015 editions of the Regulatory Arena to the clean label. In …