A new $17-million facility to be built at the University of Alberta this fall will help develop new technologies to combat food-borne pathogens and improve the safety of meat products and processing.
The Agri-Food Discovery Place (AFDP), a partnership between the university, the provincial government and industry partners, is being described as a “quantum leap” ahead for research and teaching.
“Until now we could not work with food-borne pathogens in meat products. Our facilities did not allow us to handle pathogens in a meat-processing environment,” said Lynn McMullen, a food microbiology professor at the U of A’s Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Home Economics who will lead the AFDP’s meat safety research team.
“AFDP will allow large-scale work on pathogens such as E. coli and Listeria monocytogenes in meat,” added McMullen.
At the official announcement of Discovery Place last week, provincial Agriculture Minister Shirley McClellan noted the new research will be put to use at existing facilities such as the Food Processing Development Centre in Leduc and through various Alberta Research Council companies.
The first phase of AFDP will be the Meat Safety and Processing Research Centre, which will house a special biocontainment area. The second phase will be a Crop Utilization Research Centre, which will allow scientists to study and create high-value components and concentrates for non-food industrial, novel food and functional food applications, as well as research on bio-plastics and bio-fuels created from plants.
Discovery Place is one of the cogs in a new multi-partner agreement among three Alberta agri-research and learning organizations: the U of A, the Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development and the Alberta Research Council (ARC). All three signed an agreement last week establishing the Institute for Food, Agri-Industrial, and Agricultural Sciences, Alberta (IFAASA).
The founding members of the institute will pool resources, staff and facilities, valued at more than $750 million, to manage and deliver agriculture, agri-food and agri-industrial research and education programs.
“The creation of the institute means agriculture research, product development, knowledge sharing and training will be organized and effective throughout the province,” said McClellan, as well as reducing unnecessary duplication among research organizations.
ARC will contribute its industry-backed expertise in product development and commercialization. Other research centres across the province, including the Olds College Centre for Innovation and the University of Lethbridge, are expected to become members of the new institute, which will seek private and public sector partnerships when launched this fall.
