Food In Canada • October 2021 • Editorial

As Thanksgiving is upon us, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of our readers for your support. Thanksgiving is one of my favourite festivals. It is lovely to spend a day in gratitude, and have the opportunity to thank the people who have impacted our lives. Plus, what’s better than a delicious meal with loved ones?

On this occasion, I would like to offer the following reflection from an Indigenous perspective, written by David Newhouse of Trent University (Ontario), which was shared by my teacher Luang Por Viradhammo.

“We give thanks for this day, the rising of the sun and the light and life that it brings to this earth. We give thanks to all the life forms that live around us, that support us, nourish us and keep us safe. We give thanks for another day of life. We give thanks for another day of life. We give thanks for all of creation. We can still hear the original sound of the universe as it reverberates throughout all of creation. We give thanks for all the gifts we have been given.

“We give thanks to the original inhabitants of this land and their teachings about the land and how to care for it. We give thanks to the spirits of the lands that we live on. We thank you for your sustenance and for your guidance and wisdom.”

I would also like to thank and celebrate the resilience of Canada’s food and beverage processing sector during the pandemic. We had to adopt some new, difficult methods to continue our work while ensuring the safety of workers. Kudos!

On that positive note, I’d like to highlight some of the articles we’re featuring in this issue. The cover story is on Dary Côté and Denis Fortin of Fruits de Mer du Québec who want to make Gaspe seafood accessible to all Canadians. Traditionally, the catch is exported. Côté and Fortin want to change that. Fruits de Mer du Québec sells and distributes seafood. This year alone it will sell half-a-million products worth nearly $8 million at more than 400 IGA and independent food stores across Quebec. In addition to processing shrimp, scallops, halibut and other crustaceans, molluscs and fish, the company also produces a half-dozen frozen prepared dishes including cod cakes, seafood pot pies and smoked fish that are packaged and served on a small wood board.

On pg 10, Matt Hale of HRS Heat Exchangers explains the challenges with processing eggs. He suggests tubular heat exchangers would be a suitable solution for thermal egg processing.

On pg 21, Cher Mereweather of Provision Coalition shares the nonprofit’s latest initiative, the RePurpose Incubator. The incubator will bring together academics, food scientists, marketing and sustainability experts, product developers and industry connectors. It will offer all the skills, resources, tools, people and knowledge necessary to create a new revenue stream with a byproduct. I’m also excited about the first ever Canadian Upcycled Food Festival by Provision Coalition.

Throughout October, dozens of chefs and restaurants across the Greater Toronto Area will feature on their menus special dishes created solely from upcycled products and ingredients. Recent winners of Canadian MasterChef will showcase the incredible potential of upcycled food. Sobey’s will retail the first ever upcycled meal kit, a ramen noodle bowl for two made entirely from ingredients that would have been thrown away. Do check out the festival, and share your feedback. Have a wonderful, thankful October.