InfraReady expands | Hundreds of products come from Saskatoon facility
A Saskatoon company that turns crops into value-added food ingredients continues to expand its product line with the addition of new functional food ingredients such as quinoa flakes and sprouted grain.
Mark Pickard, president of InfraReady Products Ltd., says his company now produces more than 250 products, ranging from cereal and pulse-based flour, soup mixes, processed beans and lentils, flaked cereal grain, grits and whole grain baking products.
The company, which processes Saskatchewan-grown crops using infrared energy, specializes in supplying industrial food ingredients to food manufacturers.
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Infrared processing gelatinizes the starches found in grain and pulses.
The benefits of infrared processing include shorter cooking times, increased water absorption, enhanced shelf life and softer grain texture compared to raw, unprocessed grain.
InfraReady’s client list includes large food companies such as Nestle, Dare and Gerber as well as lesser known manufacturers that focus on high-value niche markets.
Some of the company’s newer products include purple-tinted wheat flour, processed quinoa flakes, sprouted grain and baking ingredients derived from waxy hulless barley.
“Right now, we process about 60 different raw materials and we produce over 250 products,” Pickard said.
“Generally, we’re processing about 4,000 metric tonnes per year.”
Quinoa and waxy hulless barley are relatively minor crops in Saskatchewan, but their market potential could be significant.
Waxy hulless barley, which plant breeders developed at the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre, has unique end-use characteristics, including the ability to absorb and retain unusually high amounts of water.
The absorptive capacity of processed waxy hulless barley makes it an attractive ingredient for specialty and functional food manufacturers that want to reduce the fat content in their baked products without affecting texture and consumer appeal.
Studies also suggest that sprouted waxy hulless barley is an ideal source of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a non-protein amino acid that is thought to induce relaxation and enhance nervous system function in people suffering from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
In parts of Asia, specialty food products containing pre-germinated brown rice are recognized as a beneficial source of GABA.
Preliminary studies suggest that GABA levels in sprouted waxy hulless barley are up to five times higher than those found in pre-germinated brown rice.
“Having an alternative to rice (as a source of GABA) might be popular in certain markets,” Pickard said.
“There’s also a history of consumption of barley beverages in countries like Malaysia, so if these beverage products could be enhanced in GABA, there would probably be an opportunity for that. Our feeling is that to justify moving forward with it, we’d need a market of about 1,000 metric tonnes.”
Demand for quinoa is also increasing rapidly, particularly among North American consumers.
The tiny grain-like crop is gaining mainstream recognition as a gluten-free alternative to more common cereal grains.
Processed quinoa makes an ideal addition to oat-based cereals and gluten-free health bars.
“What we’re trying to do is keep abreast of the consumer trends and then try to provide ingredients that fit into those needs,” said Pickard.
“Whether the gluten-free (diet) is a long-term food trend or a short-term … fad is hard to know, but we want to be able to supply companies that want that.”
InfraReady got its start in the early 1990s when Pickard was working for Saskatchewan Wheat Pool as the head of processing research.
In that role, he was tasked with looking for ways to add value to common crops grown in Saskatchewan.
“One of the things that we found … was that to add any value to crops, they were often cooked in some form,” he said.
“That’s what led us to looking at infrared cooking technology.”
Pickard assessed the technology’s applicability, drew up a business plan, secured start-up funding from Sask Pool and established a small subsidiary company within the SWP structure.
A few years later, when the pool was in the process of becoming a publicly traded company, consultants evaluated InfraReady’s operations and recommended that InfraReady be divested or closed.
“It was, depending on how you looked at, either a crisis or an opportunity,” Pickard said.
“I saw it as an opportunity to buy the company and with the help of a partner (Naicam, Sask., entrepreneur and seed grower) Bill Hetland and some venture capital from the provincial government, I was able to buy the company from the wheat pool.”
Since then, the company has expanded its product line, moved into a new, 48,000 sq. foot processing facility and increased its workforce to 24 employees.
Product and market development continue to be top priorities for the company.
Pickard recently sent samples of processed bean and pea flour to a business partner in Asia.
A food manufacturer there was seeking a thickener for congee, a rice-based gruel that is common in many areas.
A few years ago, InfraReady also acquired a small malt distribution company, Western Malt Distributers, which supplies malt to brew pubs, micro-breweries and food companies that use malted grain in their production process.
“If you drink a locally made beer, chances are you’re drinking a product that was made from malt that we distributed.”
Pickard said convenience has always been a key selling point for InfraReady’s products. It became even more critical in the 1990s when the company supplied pre-cooked wheat as food aid through World Vision to hungry residents in Sierra Leone.
“One of the feedback comments that we got from that work was that they liked our product because it was quick cooking,” Pickard said.
“Convenience has always been a part of the key selling features of our products and still remains that way and … in a food aid situation … fuel can be as limiting as food.”
InfraReady Products Ltd. has shipped ingredients to customers on five continents. Fifty-three percent of its sales are based in Canada and 35 percent in the United States.
