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230万个就业机会。安大略省食品业的113,395家公司和农场支持着726,200个工作岗位和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都在大多伦多地区进行。乔治·布朗学院食品创新与研究工作室(First)通过将专家应用的研究与尖端研究实验室和测试厨房相结合，支持安大略省食品和饮料行业的产品开发，以确保以及时、经济高效和以客户为中心的方式开发和优化新的食品和饮料产品。到目前为止，First已经帮助131个客户开发了212个新产品，优化了235个现有产品，将52个产品推向市场，并提供了273个市场研究服务。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·布朗学院向First基础设施投资了1600多万美元，使First能够将推向市场的创新产品数量增加一倍，并扩大其服务，以满足客户不断变化的需求。首先是寻求新的NSERCTAC投资，以扩大整个价值链上的服务，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，并扩大对商业化扩展准备协助的支持。

Canada's food processing industry is the largest manufacturing sector in the country, responsible for morethan 9% of national GDP and 2.3M jobs. The 113,395 companies and farms that make up Ontarios foodindustry support 726,200 jobs and $85.2 billion in annual revenue. Toronto is the second largest foodproducing region in North America, after Los Angeles. More than half of Ontarios food processing activitiestake 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 appliedresearch with cutting-edge research laboratories and test kitchens to ensure new food and beverage productsare developed and optimized in a timely, cost-effective and customer-focused manner. To date, FIRSt hashelped 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 Innovationand George Brown College, to enable the FIRSt to double the number of innovative products brought tomarket and to expand its services to meet the evolving needs of clients. FIRSt is seeking renewed NSERCTAC 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.