Research center to bridge Canadian commodities and health

The Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals held its grand opening on May 16, following C$31m in government and industry grants for building and equipment. RCFFN has already attracted research agreements with multinationals such as Unilever and Danone. Curtis Rempel, research development manager with RCFFN, told NutraIngredients-USA.com the idea for the centre began a decade ago with the question: "How are we going to manage the rising costs of health care in Canada?" One of the answers thrown around in the academic debate among deans at the University of Manitoba was diet as a means of disease prevention with an ever-aging population.They realized there was something lacking on the industry and research side that they could fill. "We don't make that many value-added products in Canada," said Rempel. Typically commodities get exported and submitted to value-added refining processes abroad, before re-entering the Canadian market as finished products. Southern Manitoba's scenery consists of endless crop fields meeting the horizon - once Canada's bread belt, farmers are now becoming a dying breed because of low returns.RCFFN hopes to bridge Canadian commodities and health care, while helping locals along the way. "We want to work hand-in-hand with international nutraceutical companies to bring more value-added processing to Canada and increase returns to the farmer," said Rempel. One of the drawing points of the center for the industry is that it contains all levels of research under one roof "from lab-bench to pre-commercial" , explained Rempel. The Unilever and Danone research agreements will be dealing with plant sterols and prevention of obesity, heart disease and diabetes. In this case, the plant sterols are derived from sources indigenous to the region such as canola, flax and timber oils. Other sources for the center's research will be grains, oils, sees, cereals, pulses and berries. RCFFN currently has four senior researchers, 14 technicians and some more will be coming from the industry, said Rempel.

Research center to bridge Canadian commodities and health

Canada's University of Manitoba is already enticing nutraceutical and functional food companies to its new research centre - providing an axis point for industry, researchers and government in the subject.

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