A new Innovation Booster funding seeks to advance artificial intelligence adoption, bio-manufacturing, sustainability, digital traceability, and process efficiency across Canada’s food sector.
The Canadian Food Innovation Network this week earmarked $768,000 for nine food-tech projects, including multiple from British Columbia.
From AI-enabled market intelligence to novel ingredient production, these Canadian innovators are tackling some of the food sector’s most persistent challenges, according to Dana McCauley, chief executive officer of the Canadian Food Innovation Network.
“These projects reflect the depth and creativity driving food innovation in Canada right now,” stated McCauley. “Each project brings a targeted solution with clear commercial potential, and together they’re helping build a smarter, more adaptive, and more resilient Canadian food sector.”
In B.C., Hinbor is piloting an AI platform that optimizes marketing and delivery logistics for restaurants with an aim to improve retention while reducing emissions and without adding labour.
“We’re super excited to change the way people eat, and the way QSRs operate,” commented CEO Jack Jia, whose company received nearly $100K in Booster funding.
BetterTable Solutions garnered $37,500 to develop an AI-assisted mobile application to help restaurants cut food waste by up to 50% and track progress toward Net Zero targets.
“This grant will empower food and beverage operations to advance the vital work of making commercial kitchens both more sustainable and more profitable,” remarked BetterTable founder Ben Liegey.
And ThisFish received $99K to expand its flagship platform TallyVision, an automated computer‑vision inspection system. Already deployed for salmon and tuna, ThisFish will apply capital toward expanding the system to other spaces, including shrimp, lobster, and squid, as it seeks to develop the world’s largest AI model library for seafood processing.
“We’re excited to receive this CFIN grant to help us build the world’s largest library of AI models for visual inspection in seafood processing,” says cofounder Eric Enno Tamm.
ThisFish previously received CFIN funding in 2024 and in 2021 won seed research funding from the Aquaculture Innovation Award.
Computer vision technology “has the potential to exponentially improve food inspection since every fish and fillet is photographed and inspected,” Tamm says. “At the same time, our AI-enabled smart camera will automate an incredibly manual task and thereby reduce costs for seafood businesses.”
The Canadian Food Innovation Network’s Innovation Booster program “brings together the creativity and expertise of Canadian innovators to tackle real challenges in our food sector,” says Melanie Joly, Minister of Industry.
“By investing in entrepreneurs and researchers in developing cutting-edge technologies and processes, we are strengthening Canada’s food supply chain and fuelling sustainable innovation across the industry,” the federal minister remarked.
CFIN says it received 75 applications from across the country for this 13th round of Booster funding.
In total, 78 Canadian foodtech companies have received $6,359,209 from Innovation Booster program since 2021.
Nationally, CFIN has awarded more than $21,568,580 to 104 Canadian foodtech projects.
CFIN was established in 2021 and is supported by Government of Canada’s Strategic Response Fund and Canadian Agricultural Strategic Priorities Program.
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