(Screengrab from Merit Functional Foods video via YouTube)

Merit Foods pays off operating lender, no deal yet for plant

Plant-based protein processor in receivership since March

A Winnipeg pea and canola protein processor in receivership since this spring remains mothballed for now with no firm buyer — but has paid off one of its three secured creditors. Merit Functional Foods, which entered receivership March 1 after just two years’ operation, has sold all its remaining finished and raw inventory and directed […] Read more

(Merit Functional Foods video screengrab via YouTube)

Merit Foods co-owner Burcon partnering on bid for assets

Unnamed 'plant protein company' now in on Burcon's bid

A major shareholder in beleaguered pea and canola protein processor Merit Functional Foods has brought on an unnamed partner in its bid to buy the business out of receivership. After announcing last month it would submit a bid for the next-to-new Merit assets, Vancouver-based plant protein firm Burcon NutraScience said Monday it’s now “participating in […] Read more


(Screengrab from Merit Functional Foods video via YouTube)

Bidding open for Merit Foods for two more weeks

Stakeholder Burcon plans to put up 'compelling bid'

The fate of Winnipeg pea- and canola-based protein processor Merit Functional Foods won’t be confirmed until the end of April at the earliest. Merit, whose major shareholders include Vancouver plant-based protein firm Burcon NutraScience, U.S. agrifood firm Bunge and former executives of Hemp Oil Canada, was placed into receivership March 1. According to the first […] Read more

(Screengrab from Merit Functional Foods video via YouTube)

Merit Foods stakeholder looking to buy company

Burcon 'actively engaged' with company's receiver

One of the joint-venture owners of Winnipeg pea and canola protein processor Merit Functional Foods says it’s in talks to buy full control of the cash-strapped company. Two days after Merit entered a court-ordered receivership, Vancouver-based Burcon NutraScience announced Friday it “intends to submit a formal proposal to acquire the business.” Burcon said Merit’s receivership […] Read more


(Screengrab from Merit Functional Foods video via YouTube)

Plant protein processor Merit Foods in receivership

Company owes $95 million to EDC, FCC

The company behind a new Prairie processing plant extracting plant-based proteins from peas and canola has landed in receivership, in the high eight figures’ debt to its secured lenders. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) on Wednesday announced it’s the receiver for both Merit Functional Foods Corp. and the numbered company that owns Merit’s processing plant and property in […] Read more

Artist’s rendering of the Merit Functional Foods plant under construction in Winnipeg. (Merit Foods graphic)

Bunge buys into canola, pea protein maker Merit

Agribusiness giant takes quarter stake in processor

One of the world’s biggest grain companies is getting in on a processing facility under construction in Winnipeg to extract plant-based proteins from canola and peas. Winnipeg-based Merit Functional Foods announced Thursday it has received a $30 million “capital investment” from Bunge, giving the U.S. grain firm a “minority interest” worth 25 per cent. Burcon […] Read more



Corteva Agriscience, which spun off from the merged Dow and DuPont in 2019, got its canola seed breeding lab and research station in Saskatoon from the Dow AgroSciences end of the merger. (Video screengrab from Corteva.ca)

Supercluster backing canola protein production

The federally-backed research and development “supercluster” set up to boost Canada’s protein industries is funding work to wring more and better proteins out of canola seed. In Saskatoon on Wednesday, federal Industry Minister Navdeep Bains announced the Protein Industries Canada (PIC) supercluster has approved a new $27.6 million project to breed high-protein canola hybrids for […] Read more


Bean burgers made with canola protein powder at Burcon’s alternative meats protein lab in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada August 23, 2019. Picture taken August 23, 2019. REUTERS/Shannon VanRaes

Big Ag wants a cut of booming fake-meat market

Winnipeg/Chicago | Reuters — Bunge, one the world’s biggest grain traders, recently disclosed the 1.6 per cent stake it had purchased in the fast-growing fake-meat startup Beyond Meat. The play looked smart after the stock surged more than 250 per cent since the faux burger and sausage maker’s initial public offering in May. Indeed, Beyond […] Read more