Local food processor reduces waste, carbon footprint with new technology
By Lilian Schaer for Bioenterprise Canada
A food processing plant in southwestern Ontario is dramatically reducing its food waste and its carbon footprint thanks to new cleaning system technology for its blending and packing line.
Family-owned Delmar Foods, based in St. Marys, is a private label producer of sauces, dressings, mayonnaise and more for the food service and restaurant markets in Canada and the United States.
“We wanted to improve our efficiencies and yield, while reducing our overall impact on the environment,” explains Steve Owen, Business Development Executive with Delmar. “We found that we had a lot of product going to waste, whether to landfill or the effluent plant, and that this impact was growing as our business grew.”
According to Owen, the company’s challenge lay with the piping system to its packing line. During processing, products are pumped through many metres of pipe, all of which must be cleaned at the end of a production run. Conventionally, this was done by washing out the pipes, with wash water and food remains going into waste streams.
The solution Delmar wanted to implement is a pigging system, where a silicone plug, called a “pig,” is run through the pipes to push the remaining food product into the packing line instead of being wasted.
Combined with internal investment, support from the FoodShift program delivered by Bioenterprise Canada helped make the first installation of that system at Delmar a reality.
Funded by a Government of Canada investment of nearly $3 million, through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), FoodShift offers up to $50,000 in matching funding to help food and beverage processors adopt clean technologies.
“We’ve reduced our wastage to landfill and effluent by 50 percent, which has let us hit our target of lowering annual emissions by 180 metric tons of carbon dioxide,” Owen says. “We are so pleased with it that we have just purchased further equipment to do another three lines as part of our own commitment to greater sustainability and food waste reduction.”
For the company, the extra incentive of the FoodShift funding reduced the pressure for an immediate return on investment and let Delmar activate the project quickly, instead of having to wait for next year’s budget.
An added bonus for the team at Delmar was working with Bioenterprise’s staff who connected the company with key industry contacts and guided them through the funding process. Delmar Foods also partnered with another local company, Rodger Industries Inc. who supplied the pigging technology and equipment.
“Overall, we are now running at a better yield level, we’ve reduced our environmental impact and we’re inspired to complete the processing by installing the technology on more packing lines,” Owen adds.
Bioenterprise is Canada’s Food & Agri-Tech Engine, a national agri-technology focused commercialization accelerator. Bioenterprise uses its more than 20 years of industry experience and a global network of experts, mentors, funders, researchers, and industry partners to help small and medium-sized agri-food businesses connect, innovate and grow.
For 14 years, the Government of Canada, through FedDev Ontario, has worked to advance and diversify the southern Ontario economy through funding opportunities and business services that support innovation, growth and job creation in Canada’s most populous region.
The Agency has delivered impressive results, which can be seen in southern Ontario businesses that are creating innovative technologies, improving productivity, growing revenues, creating jobs, and in the economic advancement of communities across the region.
Learn more about the impacts the Agency is having in southern Ontario by exploring our pivotal projects, our Southern Ontario Spotlight, and FedDev Ontario’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
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