Food centre helps recipes go from family favourite to market

For more than 20 years, the Saskatchewan Food Centre has helped take recipes and turn them into products on store shelves.

“Your grandma’s favourite relish recipe to any crazy hair-brained scheme or idea we can help you take that to market,” Food Centre vice-president Shannon Hood-Niefer told 650 CKOM.

She said the process of getting a recipe turned into a product is relatively simple to start.

“You’ll meet with one of our scientists and we’ll sign a non-disclosure (agreement),” she explained. “We’ll pitch to you a project proposal and typically we can get started in a couple of weeks.”

Scientists then develop peoples’ home recipes into large-scale measurements while considering production using professional grade food processing equipment.

The timeline to complete the process is different for every product, according to Hood-Niefer.

“Depending on the complexity, the project might last a month or it might last 12 months,” she said.

Since opening in 1998, Hood-Neifer said about half of the products they’ve helped produce have gone to market.

Roughly 70 per cent are still on store shelves now.