Atlantic Provinces, Sub-Industries, & Workforce
While the Atlantic provinces were generally more conservative in how they modernised, more than half of all the firms from Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia engaged in improvements of some type. Again, British Columbia and the territories came out on top, while the continental provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba (69%) came towards the middle.
Among sub-industries of food processing companies in Canada, those involved in preserving fruits and vegetables, as well as those companies involved in making specialty foods, created new products (54%) and processes (68%) most often. Over half of those firms who made sugary and other sweetened products developed new items (52%), with even more in this industry subset increasing their use of pioneering methods (59%).
The larger the workforce, the more likely a company would be to innovate. Over three quarters of firms with 250 or more workers (77%) innovated, with those over 100 workers close behind (76%). Even smaller companies with under 100 employees (71%) introduced at least one type of innovation.
Innovative With In-edibles
Interestingly, many in the Canadian food processing industry also record and measure the amounts of inedible and otherwise unmarketable food products that are thrown out or otherwise utilised. Over half (54%) of food-processing companies document this food loss. Of those, over one third (36%) recorded disposal costs, while nearly one in four (23%) logged quantities sold or donated to third parties, and over one in five (22%) re-processed the portions.
Those firms reporting unmarketable food products or inedible foodstuffs used a number of different methods to remove it. These included repurposing for animal feed (42%), sending it to landfills (42%), as food donations (38%), composting (23%), and re-processing for food or non-food use (24%).
Canada’s food industry will likely keep modernizing and innovating, and this trend seems to have become universal throughout the country.
