Canadian Food Business
Richardson to Build World-Class Innovation Centre in Downtown Winnipeg
Richardson International is investing more than $30 million to develop an innovation centre in the heart of downtown Winnipeg, featuring state-of-the-art technology and equipment for research and product development.
“Our goal is that the Richardson Innovation Centre will become a centre for collaboration,” says Chuck Cohen, Richardson’s Senior Vice-President, Technology. “As a Winnipeg-based company, we look forward to bringing our customers, suppliers and partners from around the globe to this centre to showcase our products and capabilities and provide them with a rich experience in a very unique setting.”
The four-storey, 5,800-sq. m. facility will house Richardson’s food development team, product development suites, analytical laboratory, and a culinary test and demonstration kitchen. The centre will also boast a microbiology lab, quality analysis area, and office areas.
Located at the corner of Westbrook Street and Lombard Avenue, the Richardson Innovation Centre will be in close proximity to Richardson’s head office at Portage and Main. Construction will begin in April and is targeted for completion by the spring of 2020.
Lux Research Releases In-Depth Benchmark Study on Sugar Replacement Technologies
There is a high-stakes, high-tech race to find sucrose reduction and replacement methods across the food and beverage industry.
To identify which sugar reduction technologies are best positioned to replace and reduce sucrose, Lux Research, a provider of research and advisory services about technology innovation, benchmarked 20 different alternative sweeteners using a propriety scoring framework.
The report, The State of Innovation in Sugar Reduction: 2018 Edition, outlines the line-up of alternative sweetener technology options being evaluated and implemented by food and beverage companies.
It reveals that no single approach will serve as a universal sugar replacement. Instead, the key to advancing this market is likely choosing sugar reduction technologies strategically or in combination to suit flavour needs and production and cost requirements.
As part of the benchmarking process, 20 sweeteners were evaluated from eight different categories, measured against a list of common parameters. Silica-sugar-crystals, in the “development” stage, earned first place; honey and molasses, in the “scale” stage, second; and Monatin, in the “lab” stage, third.
