The Canadian food and beverage processing industry supplies approximately 80% of processed food and beverage products that are available in Canada. In 2006, the industry had sales of $78 billion. Some of the eligible subsectors in the food industry include packaged foods, frozen foods, baked goods, confectionary and snack foods, and alcoholic beverages.
In 2007, 64,445 Canadians worked in the food industry. Five per cent of these individuals were reported as working solely in research and development of new products and techniques. This doesn’t even include those individuals who work partially in research and development of food products.
The food industry has many opportunities for experimentation and development. Whether it is because a substitution of an ingredient doesn’t work out as expected, or allergens were being eliminated, or even due to an increase of the commercial scale of a product line, there are many times when companies in the food industry are faced with technological obstacles that prove difficult to surmount. These are the times when companies experiment with different alternatives to get to the technical goal they are trying to achieve.
Working towards the elimination of these obstacles can be a costly endeavor, making the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) program extremely beneficial to Canadian companies.
You May Be Eligible If:
- You have made changes to improve the nutritional properties of your product, or to eliminate allergens
- You have altered your product to increase its quality or shelf life
- You have had to upgrade production to a commercial scale
- You have invested in any projects to decrease water consumption, or improve heating/cooling processes
To see how the experts at NorthBridge can help you with your SR&ED claim, contact us for a free consultation.
