The Alberta Food Centre has been driving economic growth and diversification in the province’s agri-food industry for four decades.
The Alberta Food Centre is marking a major milestone this year, celebrating 40 years of empowering value-added food processors to expand into new markets and get more innovative made-in-Alberta products in stores.
Since the food centre opened in 1984, it has become the largest facility of its kind in North America. It has expanded three times to help Alberta’s food industry build capacity to handle increasing consumer demand and emerging trends around the globe. During the past 40 years, it has supported more than 3,000 industry projects, including research partnerships with food companies, commodity associations and post-secondaries.
“For the past four decades, the Alberta Food Centre has helped start-ups and well-known companies bring food, beverage and ingredient products to new markets. Today, the food centre offers a range of services and leasable space for value-added food processors to take the next steps to grow their business and provide innovative, high-quality Alberta-made products to consumers at home and abroad.”
RJ Sigurdson, Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation
The food centre 40 years ago
Forty years ago, food processing was a growing industry that contributed a few billion dollars to the province’s economy. During that time, the Alberta government was focused on supporting the industry to increase competitiveness and strengthen marketing efforts. To achieve this vision, the government built the Food Processing Development Centre in Leduc with an $8.6 million investment from the Alberta Heritage Savings and Trust Fund. Alberta processors were able to access the facility to develop and test new products for domestic and export markets.
In 1984, the food centre featured a product development laboratory and a processing plant with nearly $2 million in equipment to carry out most food processes on a pilot scale. The pilot plant housed a dry processing area for cereals, a wet processing area for dairy, vegetables, speciality and prepackaged foods, and a meat processing area. The facility was federally inspected, allowing products developed on site to be shipped throughout Canada and abroad. There was also an information office where food processors and industry could get technical and trade information, as well as access to computers.
At the time, seven Albertans worked in the facility. They were specialists with experience in the food industry and research who helped Alberta processors apply new technologies and develop cutting-edge processes and products to meet marketplace needs.
The food centre in 2024
Today, food and beverage processing is one of the largest manufacturing industries in the province with multi-billion-dollar sales. Alberta’s government is working hard to strengthen the industry and promote the continuum of services and leasable space at the food centre to help make more Alberta-made products available on store shelves.
Value-added food manufacturing companies of all sizes can work with the food centre to get products to market and grow their business while preparing to graduate and process on their own. When companies become clients at the federally inspected food centre, they have access to $30 million in specialized processing equipment to prepare food, beverage and ingredient products for sale within Canada. Some products may also be eligible for export to other countries. Clients also receive support from the food centre’s 40-member team to help take their products and business to the next level. The team includes food scientists, food safety specialists, product development and processing technologists, and business development officers.
“Sunterra Group has collaborated with the knowledgeable experts at the Alberta Food Centre for more than 20 years. We’ve been able to test production techniques and explore new markets before making large investments to commercialize new product lines. Working together has enabled us to expand our businesses and develop innovative products for domestic and export markets.”
Ray Price, president, Sunterra Group