Securing Canada’s Future through Capacity Building
A strong, supportive and collaborative ecosystem is necessary to build a $25 billion industry. Protein Industries Canada’s Capacity Building program supports projects that remove barriers and increase the competitiveness of Canada’s plant-based ingredient manufacturing, food processing and bioproducts ecosystem. Working across eight priority areas, Capacity Building projects focus on the growth and success of the entire ecosystem and complement investments into innovative R&D. The eight priority areas include:
- Market and Ecosystem Insights: Help project partners and the wider Canadian plant-based ecosystem identify marketing opportunities, adapt to customer needs, expand market reach, and foster innovation.
- Innovation Infrastructure: Across the sector, there is a need for increased access to research and product-scaling infrastructure.
- Access to Talent, Labour and Skills: We estimate the sector needs an additional 17,000 people to achieve the goals set out in The Road to $25 Billion. This demonstrates both a need and a great opportunity.
- Supportive Regulatory Framework: There is an opportunity to modernize Canada’s regulatory system to support continued innovation of plant-based foods, specifically for it to be more responsive and timely and to offer harmonization of regulations with other jurisdictions.
- An Inclusive Sector that Brings Benefit to Every Canadian: Protein Industries Canada is committed to inclusion of Indigenous People and new Canadians into the opportunity presented by the growth of the plant-based sector, contributing to Economic Reconciliation and the social well-being of all Canadians.
- Access to Capital: We estimate that an additional $4 to 6 billion will need to be invested into the sector to help Canadian companies scale up their processing and manufacturing operations.
- Sustainability: Canada is known for its sustainable crop production. We need to continue to identify the right metrics and reporting to advance our sustainability claims throughout the value chain.
- Global Presence:International partners are an important part of reaching the goals of The Road to $25 Billion. Protein Industries Canada will work with our federal and provincial partners to advance Canada as the preferred place to do business with and invest, while creating opportunities for our industry partners to make new connections.
During the 2023-24 fiscal year, Protein Industries Canada approved two projects. As of March 31, 2024, the two approved projects represent a total project value of $5.8 million, with a Protein Industries Canada investment of $4.6 million and an industry investment of $1.2 million. Protein Industries Canada issued one call for Capacity Building projects within the priority area of “An Inclusive Sector that Brings Benefit to Every Canadian” to bring economic and social benefit to Indigenous peoples and new Canadians. More projects are expected to be approved throughout 2024-25.
One of the two projects approved in 2023-24 will build off previous work of the Centre for Regulatory Research and Innovation (CRRI) to continue helping industry navigate and address regulatory modernization. For the Canadian plant protein and food ecosystem to be effectively aligned with domestic and global priorities, it is essential that regulations and policies create an enabling environment that facilitates utilization in national and international markets. Working collaboratively across Canada’s food system, the CRRI will aim to create an environment of meaningful dialogue between stakeholders and ensure that assessments of regulations and policy are informed by objective and responsible analysis of the challenges, opportunities, and risks associated with current or proposed regulatory and policy amendments. Concurrently, the CRRI will lead research initiatives and experimentation to create datasets and address data gaps required to inform, modernize, and implement regulatory and policy frameworks relevant to Canada’s plant food ecosystem.
These collaborative developments will advance Canada’s ecosystem by prioritizing both an innovative sector and consumer health and food safety, while contributing toward creating new jobs and a stronger economy for the future.
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Capacity Building projects committed to date
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regulations addressed by Protein Industries Canada activities to date
Helping industry navigate and address regulatory modernization
The food landscape is changing rapidly. Consumers are looking for more options—and they want those options to be healthy, sustainable and affordable. As ingredient processors and consumer packaged good companies develop the products that meet these demands, their solutions may be novel in terms of either formulation, technology or claims used to present products to consumers.
Navigating the regulations related to each of these areas, however, isn’t always easy. Whether it’s lengthy timelines or lack of clarity on policies, barriers can crop up that make it difficult for Canada’s plant-based value chain to get their products to market. To help address the issue, Protein Industries Canada has announced a new project to work with industry partners to continue its regulatory modernization research work through The Centre for Regulatory Research and Innovation, previously the Regulatory Centre of Excellence. A total of $5.4 million has been invested into this phase of the work, with Protein Industries Canada committing $4.5 million.
“As we work to strengthen Canada’s agrifood and ingredient ecosystem, a supportive regulatory system is crucial to attracting investors and entrepreneurs,” Protein Industries Canada CEO Bill Greuel said. “Regulations built on science support our entrepreneurs in developing new products and getting them to market in a timely, consumer-friendly fashion, which is crucial for innovation and increasing Canada’s competitiveness in the global market. By working together with our industry partners and across government organizations, we can foster a Canadian regulatory system that prioritizes both an innovative sector and consumer health and food safety, while also creating new jobs and a stronger economy.”
Since its initial launch in April 2022, the Centre has helped companies across the plant protein ecosystem navigate Canada’s regulatory system while addressing knowledge gaps related to regulatory modernization in three main areas:
- How protein labelling regulations from other jurisdictions may be applied in Canada without negatively impacting nutrient density and protein quality;
- How nomenclature around product labelling affects purchase decisions and consumer interpretation of such products; and
- The validation of an in-vitro way of determining protein digestibility, to reduce animal testing.
“I think the partners involved in project have really rallied around it,” Protein Industries Canada Director of the Centre for Regulatory Research and Innovation Chris Marinangeli said. “In the next iteration of the Center for Regulatory Research and Innovation, there’s going to be some building off of ’what we learned in the first phase. Having a variety of stakeholders involved in the advisory process has been great. External input has been very helpful along the way.”
The work undertaken in the next phase of the Centre will build on that completed during the first phase, and in particular will create data that fosters an enabling regulatory and policy environment to help support and strengthen Canada’s plant-based sector. Marinangeli explained that, if successful, this could provide more flexibility for highlighting the protein content of foods, without animal testing, and for companies to describe or name their products in retail.
“The food landscape has been changing drastically over the last few years, and the same challenges seem to rise to the top,” Marinangeli said. “There is a lot of discussion around evaluating regulation related to the changing food landscape, evaluating policy and understanding alignment with healthy dietary patterns. This is a unique opportunity for Canada to address these issues.”
As Canada works to strengthen its plant-based ecosystem, in an effort to compete with other countries and become a leader in the global market, modernizing its regulatory system is one of the most important steps it can take. The work of the Centre for Regulatory Research and Innovation can help, while ensuring our regulations and policies continue to prioritize food and consumer health and safety.
View the work of the Centre for Regulatory Research and Innovation.
