Lambton College's world-renowned Bio-Industrial Process Research Centre is expanding its focus into the food and beverage industry.
The college has partnered with Refined Fool Brewing Company and Jing Jing Nutrifood on a pair of exciting new projects.
College Associate Director of Research Operations, Infrastructure and Services Stephen Reaume said they're working with Refined Fool to optimize their brewing process so they can break into LCBO sales.
"To do that, they have to have very specific quality control and quality assurance," said Reaume. "So, we've been assisting them in developing their quality control and quality assurance programs and overall optimization of the process to make it more profitable. We're actually looking to develop local yeast strains so that they can develop more and more local beers that basically have everything from the Sarnia area. You're looking at your grains, hops as much as possible, and now also the yeast cultures will be local to the area as well."
Reaume said the collaboration with Jing Jing Nutrifood involves incorporating fresh ginseng into kombucha, to enhance the health benefits of the popular fermented tea drink.
He said right now the majority of ginseng is dried root that is sent to China to be graded and then sent back to Canada.
"They want to get fresh ginseng, both root and plant material, into food products," he said. "So, we've actually done quite a bit of work on ginseng-infused kombucha. Kombucha has a lot of health benefits on its own. When you add the ginseng, you get ginsenosides which can have added anti-oxidants and immune-boosting properties as well."
Reaume said once that project is wrapped up, they'll shift focus to other food and beverage products.
Reaume adds the food and beverage industry is an exciting one to delve into because you see results almost immediately.
He said things are slowly getting back to "operational normal" at the centre, and says they're helping an increased number of companies return to research mode after being slowed due to the pandemic.
