ABOUT PRK
The Prairie Research Kitchen (PRK) at Red River College Polytechnic, brings together a unique blend of food science and culinary arts to find creative solutions to support Western Canadian food processors and food service providers through research and development, technical services, and training. Working with the PRK gives clients access to valuable in-house resources and the expertise of culinary instructors and researchers as well as students.
Modern, beautiful R&D facility housed at the Paterson GlobalFoods Institute (4,000 sq ft facility)
Contact PRK
11th floor 504 Main Street, Winnipeg, MB R3B 0T1
Services offered in: English
Request Interactive Visit: http://interactivevisits.ca
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RESEARCH AND INNOVATION EXPERTISE
EXPERTISE
- New product development
- Prototype development and optimization
- Proof of concept prototyping
- Formula development
- Recipe development and validation
- Sensory evaluation with semitrained panelists and consumers
- Stability testing
- Advanced instrumentation, quality attributes testing
- Ingredient utilization and functionality testing
- Process optimization
- Enhance and support marketing and sales strategies
- Food Styling and Photography
Previous Research Projects:
- Addressing food insecurity in Indigenous communities – PRK partnered with Manitoba Métis Federation and UM to address food insecurity and sovereignty barriers in First Nation and Red River Métis food systems, with support from Protein Industries Canada. Full Story
- Workforce development and new product development – Students develop their own personal recipes for success at RRC Polytech’s Prairie Research Kitchen while receiving the support and guidance of the PRK team. Recipes include Indigenous based sauces rooted in tradition, BBQ sauces, and an Instant brownie mix. Full Story
- Les Verts Living, TACAM & BETAC – Les Verts Living partnered with RRC Polytech to develop its soil-free, pesticide-free hydroponic Terrace Pro system, now on the market. One unit supplies Culinary Arts students with fresh, gourmet produce during their studies. Full Story
- Main Street Project – The PRK ability to repurpose perfectly good food generated through research projects helped repurpose and redirect 500 kg of food to Main Street Project in an ongoing collaborative effort that helps feed the community while providing students with a valuable introduction to research. Full Story
- Big Mountain Foods and Prairie Fava – With Protein Industries Canada support, PRK partnered with Big Mountain Foods and Prairie Fava to help bring more fava-based products, like fava tofu, to market. Full Story
- Bump gets a boost - The Manitoba-based company worked with the PRK to create a 70-30 ground beef/plant-based protein blend. The product is geared for "flexitarians" - those who want to incorporate more plant-based protein, without fully eliminating meat from their diet. Full story
- Winnipeg Harvest - Soup’s on! Winnipeg Harvest partnered with the PRK to produce healthy soup mixes for the community. Full story
- Prairie Fava - a Manitoba-based company, started with a seed and a big idea. With the PRK they developed new applications for fava beans; the company first worked with the PRK to develop a fava flour crouton. Full story
- Spent Grain Miso - In partnership with two brewers, Torque Brewing and Farmery, the Red River College Culinary Research Program explored the possibility of spent grains to create Miso, a traditional fermented bean or grain paste finding new life in an ancient Japanese seasoning. Full story
- The Prairie Plant Protein Project – PRK partnered with the University of Manitoba, Food Development Centre, and industry funders to develop innovative ingredients and products from prairie proteins like dry beans, soybeans, and hemp. The research led to a cookbook: Pulse of the Prairies: A Culinary Celebration of Manitoba’s Plant Proteins. Learn more
TECHNOLOGY SECTORS
- Agriculture
- Food Innovation
EQUIPMENT AND LABS
| Equipment | Function |
|---|---|
| Demonstration kitchen with chef table sit-up bar | |
| Sonifier | Ultrasonic homogenizer for emulsions |
| Food Service cooking equipment | Deep fryer, gas range stove, oven, walk-in cooler, walk-in freezer, scales, steam kettles, flat top, grill, commercial mixers, ice machine, proofing cabinet, immersion blender, meat grinder |
| Household cooking equpiment | Refrigerator, induction burners, scales, toasters, instant pots, food processors, air fryers, waffle maker, spice grinder, food processors, |
| Stone flour mill | Grind grains into flour |
| Rational Self cooking centre | Automatically cook various foods, including meat, poultry, fish, vegetables, and desserts |
| Camber vacuum sealer | Witn modified atmosphere |
| R&D lab | |
| Blast freezer | Freeze foods at a speed that avoids damaging food molecules |
| Smoking equipment | Preserve and enhance flavour on meats, fish, and poultry |
| Programmable curing chambers | Charcuterie and fermentation projects |
| Nut butter mill | Grinds nuts into smooth creamy butter |
| Bread volume meter | Measures volume for baked goods |
| Vacuum tumbler marinator | Tenderizes, marinates, mix, or coats meat and fish |
| Pizza dough press | Manual unit for efficient and consistent dough pressing with heated upper platen |
| Commercial dehydratior | Dehydrates plants, spices, herbs with a temperature range from ambient to 90°C |
| Pasta extruder | Develop new fresh and dried pasta and noodle products. |
| Life Sciences equipment | |
| Fermentation equipment | Fermentation |
| Electrophoresis chamber | Separates and analyzes protein and DNA based physical properties |
| Pilot plant for sauces, salsas, and soups | |
| Steam kettles, hear pump, screw pump, piston filler | Upscale and package sauces, salsas, soups, etc |
| Life Sciences equipment | |
| HPLC | HPLC with Refractive Index Detector & HPLC with Ultraviolet-Visible Detector |
| Spectrophotometer UV-1600PC and FT-IR / NIR Spectrometer | Conducts and quantities pigment analysis, assesses beverage clarity, enzyme activity assays, and contaminants in food |
| Gas Chromatograph with Headspace Sampler and Gas Chromatograph with Mass Spec Detector (GC-MS) | Conducts a more comprehensive flavour and aroma profiling, trace contaminant detection; analyze bioactives |
| Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS) | Conducts mineral content analysis and heavy metal testing |
| Inductively Coupled Plasma-optical emission spectroscopy | Conducts trace mineral analysis and heavy metal detection in different samples including food ingredients |
| Differencial Scanning (DSC) Calorimeter | Monitors protein denaturation, gelling transition processes, physical state of water in food, polymorphic forms of fats, and others |
| Freeze dryer | Removes moisture from materials by freezing them and then subjecting them to a vacuum, which causes the ice to sublimate directly into vapor without melting |
| Microwave digestion | It dissolves solid samples into a solution for analysis |
| Food quality laboratory | |
| Centrifuge | Separate substances based on density, size, or shape |
| Rotary evaporator | Remove solvents efficiently via the process of evaporation |
| Equipment for microbial analysis | Incubator, micripipetes, autoclave, hot plates, vortex, water distiller |
| Electrical sieve | Particle size determination |
| Viscometer | Measures fluid flow and viscosity of liquids |
| Colour meter | L*, a*, b* colour reader |
| Moisture & Aw analyzers | Measures moisture content and water activity |
| pH meters | Measures hydrogen ion activity in solutions and solids |
| Microscope | |
| Texture analyzer | Performs texture profile analysis |
| Food styling lab | |
| Backdrops, lights, video, and photography editing software | Professional photo lab for food and beverage products |
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