Dovetail

The ‘secret sauce’ of edible cannabis in Canada

By Carol T Culhane, PHEc, MBA; President, International Food Focus Ltd.  If all goes according to plan, by October 17, Canada will have federal regulations which enable the sale of edible cannabis products.The federal government’s steadfast adherence to its roll-out of legalized cannabis in many forms illustrates its commitment to the three-pronged aim of this new legislation, which are to:  …

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Taking a bite out of Canada’s food waste problem

By Jana Manolakos While most Canadians seem to be throwing away or wasting food, 1.4 million children across Canada are struggling to have enough to eat, according to a landmark report issued earlier this year by Toronto-based food rescue organization Second Harvest and Value Chain Management International (VCMI), a global food waste authority. Their report, “The Avoidable Crisis of Food …

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Manjit Minhas, entrepreneurial tour de force

By Jana Manolakos Hers is the face that could have launched a thousand ships, but instead this stunning, petite brunette launched a Canadian beer, wine and spirits empire with sales topping $187 million last year. Meet Manjit Minhas, an entrepreneurial tour de force and a perpetual motion machine whose high energy catapulted Minhas Breweries, Distillery and Wineries, a company she co-founded …

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Chinova’s mushroom fibre set to disrupt food and beverage industry as alternative to synthetic preservatives

A lowly mushroom is taking on the long-established synthetic food preservatives industry thanks to the work of Dr. Tanzina Huq, who won the Mitacs Outstanding Entrepreneur Award this past May. The Fredericton-based startup Chinova Bioworks, which she co-founded in 2016, produces an all-natural preservative based on mushroom fibre. Chinova  Bioworks is the first to introduce natural mushroom chitosan fibre as …

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Comet Bio ‘upcycled’ ingredients win at World Food Innovation Awards

By processing agricultural leftovers into high-quality, sustainable ingredients, Comet Bio is set to transform the food industry. The Ontario-based company won this year’s award for “Best Ingredient Innovation” for its Arabinoxylan prebiotic dietary fibre extract and Sweeterra syrup, which is a healthier alternative to corn syrup. According to an independent Lifecycle Carbon Emissions Assessment (LCEA), Comet’s ingredients reduce greenhouse gases …

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Eco-friendly, edible straws win the stage at Collision

This spring, Toronto hosted its first Collision Conference, North America’s “fastest growing tech conference,” attracting more than 25,000 international attendees, almost half of which were women. During PITCH, an on-stage competition between 60 startups (narrowed down from hundreds of applicants), a cleantech product of special interest to the food industry was selected as the winner: Loliware – a company formed …

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Toronto-based organization opens access to good food for vulnerable sectors

By Ethan Kwan “The portal is simple to use and it leverages the power of group purchasing from a network of suppliers,” said Alvin Rebick, FoodReach spokesperson. “With a great partner in North York Harvest that manages the logistics, community agencies can get timely delivery of quality and affordable food.” FoodReach was founded by Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre (PARC), Toronto …

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The Taiwan food industry is striving to separate itself from mainland China

By Hermione Wilson   “Food really is a common language that goes beyond borders,” says James Huang, chairman of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), during his speech at the opening ceremonies for the 2018 Food Taipei expo. The audience is a diverse group gathered from all over the world to learn more about the Taiwanese market and to …

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