『The Food Professor』のカバーアート

The Food Professor

The Food Professor

著者： Michael LeBlanc Dr. Sylvain Charlebois
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Join Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, Senior Director, Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University in Halifax with host Michael LeBlanc as they look at the hot issues in the food, foodservice, grocery and restaurant industries. We'll discuss proprietary industry and consumer food related research, check out fresh new ideas and talk about half baked strategies. © 2020-2026 M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc. All Rights Reserved.2020-2026 The Food Professor podcast partnership マネジメント マネジメント・リーダーシップ 政治・政府 政治学 経済学
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  • Bacon Bites and Big Wins: Cloé Helmond, Co-Founder of Les Brutes du Soya, on Quebec's Soy Opportunity: SIAL Summer Bonus Episode

    Bacon Bites and Big Wins: Cloé Helmond, Co-Founder of Les Brutes du Soya, on Quebec's Soy Opportunity: SIAL Summer Bonus Episode
    2026/08/20
    Recorded live on the show floor at SIAL Canada 2026 in Montreal, this Food Professor summer bonus episode features Cloé Helmond, Co-Founder of Les Brutes du Soya, fresh off a first-place win in the Start-up Scale CPG category of SIAL Canada's seventh annual Startup Pitch Competition. Michael LeBlanc and Dr. Sylvain Charlebois catch her still holding the hardware — and still slightly stunned, since the Scale category is built for companies four to six years old and Les Brutes is barely two. The origin story is pure Quebec agri-food. Les Brutes grew out of a family soy farm in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, in the Montérégie, launched with co-founder Marie-Pier Gélineau and her brother. Cloé, a social worker by training, spotted the paradox: Quebec grows an enormous soy crop and ships most of it overseas, while Canadian shoppers buy imported textured vegetable protein (TVP). Les Brutes closes that loop, processing soy at its own facility and in Saskatoon into shelf-stable TVP. Cloé walks the hosts through the line — plain, Mexican-style and Greek-style TVP, plus two new SKUs debuting at SIAL: soy curls and bacon bites. The bacon bites are plant-based, gluten-free, dairy-free, 50 per cent protein and 21 per cent fibre, seasoned with paprika, maple syrup and tamari, with no artificial ingredients (Michael's on-mic crunch test does not disappoint). The value math is the real story: a 100-gram pouch rehydrates to 200 grams in about ten minutes with water or broth, delivering roughly two cups of ground-meat substitute for about six dollars, with a two-year shelf life. That economics pitch shapes the retail conversation. Les Brutes sits in IGA, Metro, Rachelle-Béry and Avril, usually in the health food or gluten-free set — and the hosts press on whether the "healthy aisle" default is the right home for a product aimed at flexitarians and budget-conscious families rather than committed vegans. SIAL also opened foodservice doors, including a conversation with Air Canada about a shelf-stable vegetarian option. Then the reveal. At taping, Cloé's appearance on Dans l'œil du dragon — Quebec's Dragons' Den on Radio-Canada — was still under embargo, and she shared the outcome off the record. It has since aired in Season 15: Les Brutes asked for $50,000 for 10 per cent, drew two offers, and closed a deal with dragon David Côté, co-founder of LOOP Mission, Rise Kombucha and Crudessence, at $50,000 for 10 per cent plus a fifty-cent royalty on every unit sold. She also recounts the dragons challenging whether a family business should give up equity at all. Looking ahead, Cloé eyes SIAL Paris, European soy perceptions and the export runway beyond Quebec. A fast, fun conversation about local crops, smart pricing and plant protein that earns its shelf space. About UsDr. Sylvain Charlebois is a Visiting Professor in Food Policy and Distribution at McGill University and a Professor in Food Distribution and Policy in the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is also the Senior Director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab, also located at Dalhousie University.Known as “The Food Professor”, his current research interest lies in the broad area of food distribution, security and safety. He is one of the world’s most cited scholars in food supply chain management, food value chains and traceability with over 775 published peer-reviewed journal articles. Dr. Charlebois is also an editor for the prestigious Trends in Food Science Technology journal. He co-hosts The Food Professor podcast, discussing issues in the food, foodservice, grocery and restaurant industries and which is the most listened Canadian management podcast in Canada. Every year since 2012, he has published the now highly anticipated Canadian Food Price Report, which provides an overview of food price trends for the coming year. Furthermore, his research has been featured in several newspapers and media groups, nationally as well as internationally. He has testified on several occasions before parliamentary committees on food policy-related issues as an expert witness. He has been asked to act as an advisor on food and agricultural policies in many Canadian provinces and other countries.With extensive experience collaborating with businesses, governments, and NGOs, Dr. Charlebois combines academic rigor with practical expertise, making him one of the most influential voices in the global agri-food landscape. His work continues to advance the understanding of food systems, fostering innovation and resilience in a rapidly evolving industry. In 2025, he received the prestigious Charles III medal recognizing his tremendous work in informing Canadians about food issues. Michael LeBlanc is a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and media entrepreneur. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions hosted senior retail executive on-stage in 1:1 interviews worldwide. Michael produces and hosts a network of leading ...
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    17 分
  • From NASA to Your Lasagna: Inside Maia Farms' Award Winning Mushroom Protein with Jason Mackay and Asha Wheeldon: SIAL Summer Bonus Episode

    From NASA to Your Lasagna: Inside Maia Farms' Award Winning Mushroom Protein with Jason Mackay and Asha Wheeldon: SIAL Summer Bonus Episode
    2026/08/13
    Recorded live on the show floor at SIAL Canada in Montreal, this Summer Bonus episode of The Food Professor podcast marks a first: an ingredient company winning the show's startup pitch competition. Michael LeBlanc and Dr. Sylvain Charlebois sit down with Asha Wheeldon, Founder and CEO of Kula Foods and a member of the Maia Farms team, and Jason Mackay, Chief Marketing and Sales Officer at Maia Farms, just hours after the Vancouver company added more hardware to its trophy shelf. Maia Farms makes functional mushroom food ingredients. The company combines oyster mushroom powder with Canadian yellow pea protein and extrudes it into grounds, shreds, chunks and strips that mimic ground beef, pulled meat and chicken. The result is 66 per cent protein per 100 grams, a heavy dose of fibre and iron, a two-year shelf life and no cold storage required. Crucially for manufacturers, the extrudates survive the retort process where soy and pea proteins break down, which is why 100-year-old Pembroke, Ontario soup canner Sprague Foods signed on as a partner. Asha explains how a two-and-a-half-minute pitch built on storytelling rather than numbers won over the judges, and why trust and partnership are Maia's real proof points, including work with the Greater Vancouver Food Bank that has helped feed hundreds of thousands of families. Jason unpacks the technology behind the ingredient and what comes next: cracking mushroom mycelium at commercial scale through liquid fermentation, moving from 3,000-litre proof-of-concept batches to 20,000 litres, with global ingredient players like ADM and Cargill circling mycelium as a clean-label fat mimic and binder. The conversation turns to a bigger question Michael and Sylvain saw play out across the show: is Canada on the cusp of an ingredient renaissance? Pitch competitions usually reward consumer-ready products, from popsicles to upcycled coffee grounds. This year, the fundamentals of food won. The panel connects that shift to front-of-pack labelling, the clean-label push, manufacturers hunting for protein, fibre and iron without wrecking taste and texture, and the trust that Brand Canada's food safety reputation carries into export markets. They also tackle affordability. With beef and chicken prices climbing, Sylvain's "protein orphans" are being left behind, and GLP-1 users are pushing protein demand higher still. A shelf-stable, high-protein ingredient that disappears into a lasagna or pasta sauce when seasoned properly is a genuinely different answer to food insecurity. Plus: what winning an award actually does for a young company, why Maia was the only mushroom ingredient supplier on the SIAL floor, and the company's plan to bring business home to Canada after building traction in the US, Mexico, Singapore and Japan. A smart, optimistic listen on where Canadian food innovation goes next. About UsDr. Sylvain Charlebois is a Visiting Professor in Food Policy and Distribution at McGill University and a Professor in Food Distribution and Policy in the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is also the Senior Director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab, also located at Dalhousie University.Known as “The Food Professor”, his current research interest lies in the broad area of food distribution, security and safety. He is one of the world’s most cited scholars in food supply chain management, food value chains and traceability with over 775 published peer-reviewed journal articles. Dr. Charlebois is also an editor for the prestigious Trends in Food Science Technology journal. He co-hosts The Food Professor podcast, discussing issues in the food, foodservice, grocery and restaurant industries and which is the most listened Canadian management podcast in Canada. Every year since 2012, he has published the now highly anticipated Canadian Food Price Report, which provides an overview of food price trends for the coming year. Furthermore, his research has been featured in several newspapers and media groups, nationally as well as internationally. He has testified on several occasions before parliamentary committees on food policy-related issues as an expert witness. He has been asked to act as an advisor on food and agricultural policies in many Canadian provinces and other countries.With extensive experience collaborating with businesses, governments, and NGOs, Dr. Charlebois combines academic rigor with practical expertise, making him one of the most influential voices in the global agri-food landscape. His work continues to advance the understanding of food systems, fostering innovation and resilience in a rapidly evolving industry. In 2025, he received the prestigious Charles III medal recognizing his tremendous work in informing Canadians about food issues. Michael LeBlanc is a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and media entrepreneur. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions hosted senior retail executive on-stage in 1:1 ...
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    18 分
  • Zero Proof, Full Flavour: Victoire Guglieri, Founder of Nasdrow, First Prize Seed CPG Category Winner: SIAL Summer Bonus Episode

    Zero Proof, Full Flavour: Victoire Guglieri, Founder of Nasdrow, First Prize Seed CPG Category Winner: SIAL Summer Bonus Episode
    2026/08/06
    In this special summer bonus episode of The Food Professor podcast, co-hosts Michael LeBlanc and Dr. Sylvain Charlebois sit down live at the SIAL food innovation show in Montreal with Victoire Guglieri, Founder of Nasdrow, fresh off her win at the startup pitch competition. Energetic, candid, and armed with samples, Victoire takes Michael and Sylvain on a guided tasting tour of her premium non-alcoholic, ready-to-drink cocktail brand and makes a compelling case for why alcohol-free drinks should never be boring. Victoire shares the origin story behind Nasdrow, a brand born from a personal frustration. After a month without alcohol, she discovered that the non-alcoholic beverage options on the market were too sweet, too fizzy, too artificial, or too bitter, and none delivered the complexity and sophistication of a real cocktail. Raised in Bordeaux, France, surrounded by grandparents who taught her the language of wine, and having spent part of her childhood in Poland, she named her company after the festive Polish toast "Na zdrowie," reimagined in English as a non-alcoholic super drink mixed with low alcohol. The result is a line of all-natural, preservative-free, less-sweet ready-to-drink mocktails engineered to deliver the full cocktail experience: the nose, the texture, the taste, and the finish. The tasting begins with Scarlet & Co, Nasdrow's bestseller and a gold medal winner at the World Alcohol-Free Awards in London, a slightly fizzy blend of strawberry, basil, ginger, and lemon. Michael and Sylvain then sample the Mojito Fusion, praising its fresh, fragrant aroma and depth of flavour, before Victoire walks through the rest of the range, including the bone-dry, bubble-free Margarita Salsa and an Espresso Martini that produces a thick foam when shaken in a cocktail shaker. The conversation digs into the forces reshaping the beverage industry: why younger consumers are drinking less alcohol, the influence of health and wellness trends on social media, the lingering effects of COVID on social drinking, and the mounting science around alcohol and health. Victoire notes that roughly one in two consumers is now drinking less, and that 80 percent of Nasdrow's customers also drink alcohol, positioning the brand not as anti-alcohol but as a sophisticated option for moderation, designated drivers, and anyone finishing the night with something lighter. The episode wraps with a look at retail momentum. Nasdrow is already listed in Quebec at Metro, with more listings on the way and national distribution ambitions before year-end, as Victoire works to build an entirely new premium mocktail category alongside retailers and buyers. It is a fun, flavour-forward conversation about entrepreneurship, food innovation, and the fast-growing non-alcoholic beverage market, recorded live on the SIAL show floor, that every retailer, grocer, beverage buyer, and sober-curious listener should hear. About UsDr. Sylvain Charlebois is a Visiting Professor in Food Policy and Distribution at McGill University and a Professor in Food Distribution and Policy in the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is also the Senior Director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab, also located at Dalhousie University.Known as “The Food Professor”, his current research interest lies in the broad area of food distribution, security and safety. He is one of the world’s most cited scholars in food supply chain management, food value chains and traceability with over 775 published peer-reviewed journal articles. Dr. Charlebois is also an editor for the prestigious Trends in Food Science Technology journal. He co-hosts The Food Professor podcast, discussing issues in the food, foodservice, grocery and restaurant industries and which is the most listened Canadian management podcast in Canada. Every year since 2012, he has published the now highly anticipated Canadian Food Price Report, which provides an overview of food price trends for the coming year. Furthermore, his research has been featured in several newspapers and media groups, nationally as well as internationally. He has testified on several occasions before parliamentary committees on food policy-related issues as an expert witness. He has been asked to act as an advisor on food and agricultural policies in many Canadian provinces and other countries.With extensive experience collaborating with businesses, governments, and NGOs, Dr. Charlebois combines academic rigor with practical expertise, making him one of the most influential voices in the global agri-food landscape. His work continues to advance the understanding of food systems, fostering innovation and resilience in a rapidly evolving industry. In 2025, he received the prestigious Charles III medal recognizing his tremendous work in informing Canadians about food issues. Michael LeBlanc is a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and media entrepreneur. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side ...
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    17 分
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