Product Development and Shelf Life Testing for Vegan Product

George Brown College’s Food Innovation and Research Studio (FIRSt) is collaborating with NONA Vegan Foods on a product development and shelf-life testing project for their signature vegan sauce. Kailey Gilchrist, owner of NONA, has developed a vegan Alfredo – style sauce, and has begun commercial production and distribution. The product is currently being sold to natural food stores in downtown Toronto, and at vegan/vegetarian events across southern Ontario. NONA is looking to expand their client base as consumer demand for vegan, gluten, and dairy free food options increase. Due to a short shelf-life, the size of each batch is limited, as well as the number of clients they can service, and geographic area they can cover. Soul to Bowl requires assistance from FIRSt to improve their processing method, increase the products shelf life, and provide standard operational procedures and quality control requirements for small-scale production of their final product. Principal Investigator, Robert McCurdy, M.Sc., Senior Research Food Scientist, FIRSt, will use his extensive industry experience to complete this project, while working with a student from George Brown College’s Culinary Arts program.