Grant: CCI Applied Research and Development Grants

BeeMaid is a cooperative of more than 300 Western Canadian Beekeepers from Manitoba, Eastern Saskatchewan and Northwestern Ontario. Formed in 1954, BeeMaid is a well-known honey production company by ensuring product quality year after year, while finding innovative ways to increase market growth and new product opportunities. This project objective aims to add value to Canadian honey by developing a new line of products for the local and international markets. This new development presents several technical challenges due to the nature of the product, including regulatory guidelines, product quality control, flavour development, product stability, and identification of processing and packaging conditions for the new products. Products developed include domestic and Asian markets – specifically market appeal in Japan. RRC Polytech’s Prairie Research Kitchen Technology (PRK) Access Centre will conduct applied research in conjunction with BeeMaid Honey Limited’s marketing team to identify market trends for flavoured honey products in the Canadian and Asian markets, including flavour profiles, packaging trends, and product positioning. This information will inform the design of the new products. The research team will consult with BeeMaid’s technical team on honey regulations, processing conditions, achieving their current quality control parameters and key challenges for industrial production and packaging of the new products (current facilities are not set up to accommodate flavoured honey). Technical challenges include honey clarity of three honey varieties (white, amber, and creamed) with different flavourings/inclusion each that can maintain a minimum of 12 months shelf-life. The packaging will be selected based on marketing and technical parameters while meeting all regulatory and import regulations. This partnership with BeeMaid provides students and staff at Red River College an opportunity to work with a successful mid-sized Manitoba company with national and international markets.The College will be able to support BeeMaid’s research and product development needs leading to potential future opportunities to engage through further research or employment opportunities for students.