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Enhancing Canada’s plant-based cheese market

Technology
TECHNOLOGY PRIORITY

Make

PROJECT TIMELINE
September 2021 to November 2022
PROJECT STATUS
Fund I: Complete
TOTAL INVESTMENT
$1,436,668

Consortia Contribution
$718,334

Cluster Contribution
$718,334

PARTNERS

Lumi Foods

Crush Dynamics Inc.

Ferma Farms

Save-On-Foods

Goal

To enhance Canada's plant-based cheese market including the development of new products from Canadian crops (oats, legumes & pulses) and provide prominent placement in grocery stores across Canada.

Project Summary

The consortium members are scaling Canada’s non-dairy cheese industry by investing into Canadian-grown input materials; scaling production capacity; investing into the sales channel, including revamping Save-on-Foods’ cheese section to include Canadian plant-based alternatives; investing into new technologies for precession fermentation to improve product quality; and finally investing into the development of unique bacterial culture sets that will enable the entire industry to access the same building blocks dairy cheese producers have had for centuries but now developed specifically for plant-based ingredient input.

This project draws on the experience of industry leaders in plant-based cheese, retail, bacterial and microbiological research.

Results and Impact

  • Lumi Foods saw ongoing prospects for methodology and technology acceleration opportunities in alternative cheesemaking production and processing, capturing the interest of Singapore. Lumi also saw a greater presence in the plant-based food ecosystem through networking and access points, strengthening their relationship for further opportunities.
  • Save-On-Foods saw competitive advantages by being the first to market Lumi Foods' cheeses
  • Ferma Farms went from small-scale flask production in the lab to ordering and testing the process on a 20L fermentation scale. Ferma Farms hopes to launch a commercial process that will ultimately consume byproduct waste streams from pea, potato and sugar beet processing facilities across North America. By consuming these carbon byproducts, Ferma Farms will upcycle this energy source into a nutrient-dense consumer-grade protein to help feed the world.
  • Crush Dynamics continues transforming winemaking agriculture derivatives into high-performance food ingredients containing alchemic powers with no additional requirements or strain on agriculture resources, while having consistent sales that result from market-validated products that can be effectively integrated into the systems employed by their target customers. Crush Dynamics plans to launch products, such as sports nutrition and snack foods, in Canada and then into the global market.

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