Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

Nature's Mix, located in Cambridge Ontario, is a producer of healthy granola mixes. The company currently produces 17 different granola mixes to supply to the health food market in Ontario. Nature's Mix is interested in expanding and automating their production line to increase product supply to meet growing customer demand.The unique combination of ingredients in the granola mix requires optimization of cooking parameters including temperature and time, mixing method, and air flow in the headspace. Therefore, choosing a suitable cooking technology for this kind of a mixture is challenging. To achieve optimum quality of the cooked granola mix, the cooking equipment should be capable of controlling temperature, continuously mixing the material at a given speed, and removing the moist air from the system. The existing technology does not meet all these requirements. Thus, the research project holds two objectives: 1) development of a prototype for cooking granola mix and that meets company specifications, and 2) evaluation of the effects of this new technology on product quality.The research team at Conestoga College's Institute for Food Processing Technology (IFPT) will conduct experiments to prototype an equipment with novel technology that the company can utilize in cooking granola at an elevated scale, but without altering the product quality. Nature's Mix will benefit through increased sales growth in the healthy food product market, scaled up production, and creation of new employment opportunities.