TORONTO — The 20th edition of SIAL Canada, the largest food-innovation trade show in North America, was held recently at The Enercare Centre in Toronto. With more than 800 exhibitors and brands from 44 countries, the event attracted 21,000 industry professionals from 77 countries.
The event featured the prestigious SIAL Innovation competition, showcasing 29 products from six countries. The Gold Award went to Millennia Tea Inc. for its product “Frozen Superfood Tea,” while LOC Industries Inc. received the Silver Award for its plant-based egg substitutes. La Presserie won the Bronze Award for its line of “Cold Pressed Cocktails Mixers.” Kingston Aluminum Technology Inc. was also recognized for its sustainable product, “Shaped Aluminum Bottles.”
The highly anticipated Pitch Competition featured more than 14 participants from the Start-Up Village sponsored by the City of Toronto. Winners included Souper Troopers in the Food or Beverage Category, The HealTea in the Food or Beverage Category, and Spatula Foods in the Packaging, Technology, or Service Category.
Throughout the three-day show, SIAL Canada featured the SIAL Podcast in collaboration with The Food Professor Podcast, providing exclusive interviews and discussions with industry experts. La Cuisine by SIAL presented culinary experiences by renowned chefs, highlighting sustainable agriculture, cost-effective cooking, plant-based cuisine, and international flavours.
Along with the Inspire Drink and SIAL Cheese Workshops, this year’s conference program covered a wide range of topics, including ethnic markets, foodservice and retail sectors, alternative proteins, sustainability, and consumer trends. The Central Expert Hub featured talks and panel discussions by industry ambassadors. Foodservice and Hospitality magazine’s editor/publisher Rosanna Caira moderated a lively session titled Supply Chain Challenges & Opportunities: A Chef’s Perspective, with chefs Erica Karbelnik, Martin Kouprie, Luciano Schipano and Kellen Crumb.
The session covered challenges surrounding product shortages and increasing prices in the restaurant industry, as well as how the four chefs have managed to adapt, evolve and create new opportunities in their operations.
“The first and foremost challenge we’re facing is the fluctuation of prices,” said Karbelnik. “At one point for our restaurant, when I was in restaurants, we were paying $17 for a jib of oil. And then all of a sudden, it skyrocketed, and you’re paying $75 for a jib. When you’re in a restaurant, you have fried items. Those fryers itself hold one-and-a-half jibs, you have two fryers, you’re looking at over $160. And that has to be changed every other day. The prices have increased significantly and it’s really forced our hand to look at our menus and say, ‘what can we scale back on? And what can we change to make sure that we’re not running into these issues by paying that much money for oil by taking off my fried items on my menu?’”
For Schipano, whose restaurants utilized a number of imported ingredients, getting product to Canada was a huge challenge. “We liked to import everything from Italy and that was a huge [challenge] because the shipping container would not arrive,” he said.
For Crump, who is the executive chef for Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena, it’s a “combination of both of those issues mentioned and adding a lot of volume, because we’re serving considerably more food than most places. But the volume part of it is the biggest aspect of it. For example, since September, we’ve ordered over 150,000 pounds of potatoes, over 53,000 pounds of prime rib, 51,000 oysters — we’re just doing obscene numbers.”
Luckily, he said, his operation “doesn’t just use one or two vendors. We currently have nine vegetable suppliers and multiple protein suppliers as well,” he said, adding he tries to source local product whenever possible.
Other show highlights included the third edition of the International Cheese Competition, which evaluated 231 cheeses from eight countries in 25 categories. The Grand Champion and Champion medal in the Firm Cheese category went to Stonetown Artisan Cheese Ltd. for its “Wildwood” cheese. The Olive d’Or contest showcased 77 olive oils from 12 countries across four continents. The top 15 extra virgin olive oils received gold, silver, and bronze awards in different categories.
The event will return in 2024 at the Palais des Congres in Montreal.
