Grandparents killed in wrong-way crash on Hwy. 401 identified
The Indian couple killed in a wrong-way police chase crash on Highway 401 earlier this week has been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
The plant-based protein industry is focused on improving the price, taste and texture of its products as it weathers a period of consumer wariness brought on by the rising cost of living.
That's according to industry experts, including Bill Greuel, CEO of Protein Industries Canada, who says there's a lot of work being done in Canada to improve things like the meltability of plant-based cheese and the texture of plant-based meat.
There's a lot of work being done in Canada to improve things like the meltability of plant-based cheese and the texture of plant-based meat, said Greuel in an interview at Plant Forward in Toronto, a conference focused on the plant-based food sector.
"Canada's making great strides," Greuel said, calling price, taste and texture the "Holy Trinity of consumer needs."
Inflation and higher interest rates have made consumers more sensitive to price differences, he said, and therefore less willing to try plant-based meat alternatives.
In addition to innovating on the taste and texture side, the industry needs to build up its manufacturing and processing capacity in Canada to help address the price differences between plant-based meat and its conventional counterparts, said Greuel.
"Our belief is that if we create scale in ingredient manufacturing, that's going to provide more options to food manufacturers, more options to consumers," he said.
"And that's our path to relieving some of the inflationary pressures in the plant-based food side, is scaling up ingredient manufacturing in the country."
The economic outlook for the plant-based protein industry was the subject of a presentation at the conference on Wednesday by two speakers from Ernst and Young.
Huzaifa Akhtar, economic advisory vice-president, and Mauricio Zelaya, partner and national economics leader, told conference-goers that businesses in the industry are working on multiple fronts to stay ahead of the curve.
This includes improving existing products and looking into new ones, said Akhtar.
"We're really seeing that huge push for innovation across the board," she said.
It's also important for companies to mitigate potential supply chain disruptions by near-shoring -- meaning seeking suppliers closer to the business -- and diversifying the sources of their input crops, she said.
Over the longer term, Greuel said there's still lots of growth predicted for the industry, though not at the steep rate previously thought.
Companies like Beyond Meat were all over the news when they launched products, including in major fast-food chains, that promised to mimic the taste and texture of a beef burger, but the initial excitement has faded in recent years and resulted in a stock price slide.
Ambitions for growth in the plant-based protein industry have been pared back, Greuel said.
"At the start of COVID, we were seeing compound annual growth rate in the double digits," he said.
"Now, we've had a market correction, and I think rightfully so."
Recent estimates are more conservative at about six to eight per cent, he said.
"That's still significant."
Scaling up manufacturing and processing in Canada is challenging, however, as the projects require a lot of growth capital, said Greuel.
"The cost of an ingredient manufacturing facility is measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars. That's very hard to finance in the traditional (venture capital) models that we have in Canada," he said.
"The other issue is that they can't finance an entire processing facility with debt financing from traditional markets, because the cost of debt servicing becomes too high."
That's why it's important to find ways to incentivize more private-sector investment, said Greuel.
Regulations are also a key concern, he added, as it takes much longer in Canada to get novel foods approved versus the U.S. -- sometimes several years longer.
While the latest federal budget makes mention of "regulatory sandboxes" to help businesses boost innovation, Greuel said "those are all things we've heard before."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 18, 2024.
The Indian couple killed in a wrong-way police chase crash on Highway 401 earlier this week has been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
Three people have been arrested and charged in the killing of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar – as authorities continue investigating potential connections to the Indian government.
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
RCMP say human remains found in a rural area in central Saskatchewan may have been there for a decade or more.
Winnipeg police say they have arrested two people in their 20s after a large amount of explosives were found in a home outside of Winnipeg, Man.
As Wegovy becomes available to Canadians starting Monday, a medical expert is cautioning patients wanting to use the drug to lose weight that no medication is a ''magic bullet,' and the new medication is meant particularly for people who meet certain criteria related to obesity and weight.
Spain scrapped an annual bullfighting award on Friday, prompting a rebuke from conservatives over a backlash against a centuries-old tradition they see as an art form but which has run into growing concern for animal welfare.
Drew Carey took over as host of 'The Price Is Right' and hopes he’s there for life. 'I'm not going anywhere,' he told 'Entertainment Tonight' of the job he took over from longtime host Bob Barker in 2007.
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.