Towards a collaborative Centre of Expertise on food allergen management at University Laval in Quebec City

Quebec, October 4th, 2016 – The German company R-Biopharm, one of the largest food diagnostics companies worldwide, is establishing a new Centre of Expertise on food allergen management in collaboration with Université Laval’s Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods (INAF).

This announcement was made on the margin of BENEFIQ 2016, an international rendez-vous on health ingredients, gathering representatives from the food science and industry communities and organized by INAF in Quebec City from Oct 4th to 6th 2016.

As part of its commitment to this endeavour, R-Biopharm is setting a new entity, based in Quebec City: R-Biopharm Canada, and is investing an initial $250,000 US Dollars to support applied research efforts aiming to develop, validate and disseminate allergen detection methodologies.

R-Biopharm Canada is dedicating this investment to fund post-doctoral fellows and graduate students as well as targeted research initiatives in food allergen management, under the leadership of Dr. Samuel Godefroy, a full Professor of Food Risk Analysis at the Department of Food Sciences of Université Laval and a researcher of the Institute.

Dr. Godefroy commented on this investment as “an encouraging start for the development of a centre of expertise on food allergens at INAF.” “We are hopeful that our partnership will lead to a Platform on Food Risk Analysis, equipped to address emerging food safety issues in Canada and internationally”, he added.

Kurt Johnson, CEO of R-Biopharm Inc. in the United States and R-Biopharm Canada was present at the announcement and justified this investment in Quebec, by the “high caliber of expertise offered by Université Laval’s Department of Food Science and INAF and the potential of development identified through their recent investment in new areas of risk analysis in support of the formulation of science-driven food regulatory policies”.

“As a leading food diagnostics company, investing in enhanced food allergen management, offers us the opportunity to better contribute in improving the safety of food products offered to allergic consumers not only in Canada, but worldwide”.

Quebec International, in charge of supporting the establishment of foreign investors in the region of Quebec, emphasized the importance of translating research initiatives into business opportunities and expressed its appreciation of the decision made by this world class leader of food diagnostics to set its Canadian operations in Québec, as part of its partnership with INAF researchers.

The newly established R-Biopharm Canada / INAF partnership is starting its operations this month and has reached out to a number of partners domestically and internationally to leverage their support and maximize the impact of their research outputs, targeting a leadership role in support of food allergen management in Canada and beyond.