Guelph Research and Development Centre

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)

93 Stone Road West
Guelph, Ontario
N1G 5C9

Telephone: 519-829-2400

Email: aafc.guelphrdc-crdguelph.aac@canada.ca

Latitude: 43.524740
Longitude: −80.228906

Located in Guelph, Ontario, the Centre specializes in food safety, quality and nutrition, and is committed to ensuring that food produced in Canada continues to be among the safest and of the highest quality in the world.

The Guelph Research and Development Centre was established in 1997, with the intent to put in place a federal capacity in food research at the heart of the largest Canadian concentration of expertise and infrastructures dedicated to food research and development. The Guelph Research and Development Centre supports a sustainable and profitable agri-food sector in Canada by carrying out world class research in food safety and quality, proactively mitigating food safety threats as well as generating fundamental and applied knowledge that enable the Canadian agri-food sector to develop health promoting food that respond to consumer needs, whereby generating added value throughout the food chain.

Research covers all aspects of food production, from the field to the fork. In addition to its focus on food quality and safety, much of the centre's work is exploring the potential for conventional foods to offer nutritional and other therapeutic benefits. Scientists are also developing innovative methods to reduce food-borne biological and chemical hazards that may be present in farm commodities, fresh market and processed foods.

The research focus at Guelph RDC falls under two main areas that recognize the overarching influence of environmental change on food safety and health attributes of foods.

Research Areas:

• Addressing food safety threats and mitigation strategies
• Improving attributes of agricultural commodities through innovation

Facilities at the Guelph Research and Development Centre

• Specialized Molecular Biology Research Unit with equipment and expertise for studying food DNA, and the monitoring and tracking of harmful food-borne bacteria
• Containment Level 2 Food Processing Pilot Plant with traditional and novel processing equipment (for example: high pressure processing, ultraviolet, ozone) used to study biocontrol of food borne pathogens
• Cell Culture Research unit to study bioactivity of food components in vitro
• Mass spectrometry lab to study food bioactive compounds
• Located adjacent to:
  • University of Guelph Research Park
  • Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs headquarters
  • Public Health Agency of Canada Zoonoses Laboratories
  • Many Canadian and provincial head offices of producer groups and agri-food industry partners
  • AAFC Regional Office

Current research activities

New opportunities from bioresources

• Conducting research on novel bioprocesses for separating and modifying agricultural and agri-food products that will have enhanced properties and commercial potential
• Characterizing and identifying agricultural bioproducts for human, animal and industrial applications

Safety of foods for Canadians

• Developing methods for preventing food-borne hazards through the use of innovative natural controls and strategies
• Exploring technologies to control toxins in foods and livestock feeds
• Finding ways to preserve safety, quality and nutrition of processed and packaged foods
• Identifying food-borne bacteria and viruses that cause illness in humans and animals

Health and wellness through innovation

• Preserving the functional and nutraceutical properties of foods before, during and after processing
• Investigating natural antioxidants and other health enhancing nutrients as anti-cancer agents
• Conducting research on bioactive elements and the bio-availabilities of phytochemicals (plant chemicals with potential disease-preventing compounds), and natural health products from Canadian crops and plants

Results of our research

• Demonstrated that the addition of bacteriophages, probiotic bacteria, and/or essential oils, to animal feed could reduce pathogens such as Salmonella and Clostriduim perfringens in swine and chicken. This reduces the need to use antibiotics in feed, thus contributing to a decrease in the development of antimicrobial resistance
• Discovered the gene cluster responsible for necrotic enteritis, a serious disease in poultry. This paves the way to developing a vaccine to protect birds, resulting in improved production yield
• Developed a process to detoxify vomitoxin, (a mycotoxin causes vomiting in pigs and occurs in grains such as wheat, barley and corn), using bacterial isolates from natural environments. Work is underway to use this process to detoxify contaminated animal feed, which would result in improved growth rates and substantial economic benefits
• Demonstrated that high pressure processing is a viable process to improve the safety of sodium reduced meat products
• Provided critical scientific evidence to demonstrate the health benefit of oat dietary fibers that was instrumental in regulatory agencies accepting the claim that "Oat fibre helps to reduce cholesterol, which is a risk factor for heart disease." This enabled food processors to use the statement for marketing, opening up new markets and potential sales for Canadian crops
• Provided scientific evidence and assisted both the soy industry and regulatory agency in the approval of a soy health claim relating regular intake of soy foods to lowering of cholesterol
• Currently working with the pulse industry to produce credible evidence for an approved health claim relating intake of pulses to lowering of blood sugar levels
• Helped to demonstrate the health enhancing value of purple wheat products as a source of natural antioxidants. Purple wheat is now commercially produced as Anthograin^TM and used by the baking industry
• Developed a flax dehulling technology, now used commercially, to create new health and beauty products for global markets
• Validation of food manufacturing processes to enhance microbial safety, for example: survival of pathogenic bacteria in Ready-To-Eat meats
• Developed hairless canary seed as a novel food