Food Innovation Research Studio (First)

加拿大的食品加工业是该国最大的制造业，占全国GDP的9%以上，创造了230万个就业岗位。安大略省的食品产业由113,395家公司和农场组成，提供了726,200个就业岗位和852亿美元的年收入。多伦多是北美第二大食品产区，仅次于洛杉矶。安大略省一半以上的食品加工活动**发生在大多伦多地区。乔治布朗学院食品创新和研究工作室**(FIRSt)支持安大略省食品和饮料行业的产品开发，将专家应用**研究与尖端研究实验室和测试厨房相结合，以确保及时开发和优化新的食品和饮料产品**，具有成本效益和以客户为中心的方式。迄今为止，FIRSt已**帮助131个客户开发了212种新产品，优化了235种现有产品，将52种产品推向市场，**提供了273项市场调研服务。最近，安大略省南部联邦经济发展局、加拿大创新基金会和乔治布朗学院在FIRSt基础设施**上投资了1600多万美元，使FIRSt能够将创新产品的数量增加一倍，并扩大其服务范围，以满足客户不断变化的需求。FIRSt正在寻求新的NSERC**TAC投资，以扩大整个价值链的服务，从概念和原型开发，**测试（感官，定性，定量）和改进，到创建新的制造工艺，**和扩大对规模准备援助的支持，以实现商业化。

Canada's food processing industry is the largest manufacturing sector in the country, responsible for more**than 9% of national GDP and 2.3M jobs. The 113,395 companies and farms that make up Ontarios food**industry support 726,200 jobs and $85.2 billion in annual revenue. Toronto is the second largest food**producing region in North America, after Los Angeles. More than half of Ontarios food processing activities**take place within the Greater Toronto Area. George Brown Colleges Food Innovation and Research Studio**(FIRSt) supports product development in Ontarios food and beverage industry by integrating expert applied**research with cutting-edge research laboratories and test kitchens to ensure new food and beverage products**are developed and optimized in a timely, cost-effective and customer-focused manner. To date, FIRSt has**helped 131 clients develop 212 new products, optimize 235 existing products, move 52 products to market,**and provide 273 marketing research services. Over $16M has recently been invested in FIRSt infrastructure,**by the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, the Canada Foundation for Innovation**and George Brown College, to enable the FIRSt to double the number of innovative products brought to**market and to expand its services to meet the evolving needs of clients. FIRSt is seeking renewed NSERC**TAC investment to expand services across the entire value chain, from concept and prototype development,**testing (sensory, qualitative, quantitative) and refinement, through to creating new manufacturing processes,**and expanding support for scale-up preparation assistance for commercialization.