Seasoning and dressing: NAICS 31194

Overview

Ontario’s seasoning and dressing manufacturing sector is impactful within Ontario’s food industry. The products are represented in retail and foodservice under several iconic brands and also used as ingredients of or compliments to a number of other food related products. Ontario’s “other food sector”, of which seasonings, and dressings is a part of, accounts for over 11% of the food and beverage manufacturing sector’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ^{footnote 1[1]}.

2020 Key indicators

In 2020:

• there were 86 seasoning and dressing businesses in Ontario, which is a decrease of 4.4% over the last five years ^{footnote 2[2]}
• there were $363 million in exports and $786 million of products imported into the province. The United States is our main export market, followed by New Zealand and the Philippines ^{footnote 5[5]}

Ontario at a glance

Ontario is home to many seasoning and dressing manufacturers, including multinational companies and small and medium enterprises.

Giraffe Foods Inc. is a leading player in the formulation and manufacturing of custom taste solutions in a wide array of packaging. They have advanced research and development and culinary capabilities used to formulate and produce unique beverage concentrates, dressings, sauces, syrups and more. In addition, Giraffe Foods provides a wide assortment of packaging options and a broad range of processing capabilities housed in state-of-the-art facilities ^{footnote 81[81]}.

Griffith Foods is a product development partner specializing in food ingredients from seasoning and sauces to bakery products, breadings, coatings, flavours and more. Through their three main channels of processing, foodservice and retail, Griffith Foods reaches customers throughout Ontario and Canada daily. As a privately held company, Griffith has always taken a long-term view of the food industry and built a reputation for dependability and premier quality. They have a history of pioneering food science to the industry and using innovation as a foundation for differentiation ^{footnote 82[82]}.

W.T. Lynch Foods Ltd. is a 100% Canadian family-owned food manufacturer. They supply high-quality food products for foodservice, retail, healthcare and industrial use. With diverse manufacturing capabilities, they manufacture cold and hot beverage mixes, dessert toppings, jams and jellies, sauces and dressings, soup and gravy bases and syrups. Their offerings are available in portion size for bulk formats, customer-friendly sizes and take-out. Lynch Foods provides customized food solutions and prides itself on superior product quality, industry-leading order fill rates, quality control standards and innovative research and development ^{footnote 83[83]}.

McCormick Canada is Canada’s national leading dry and specialty foods, and flavour business brand, seasoning and spice. They provide products that are featured in foodservice and food manufacturers products, retail outlets and private label. Club House is the largest and most significant brand for McCormick Canada who’s portfolio includes Billy Bee, Club House, La Grille, French’s, McCormick Gourmet and others ^{footnote 84[84]}.

Select Foods have been in operation in Ontario for over 80 years. They products both cold mixed and cooked formats which include condiments, dips, salad dressings, sauces, salsas and much more in a large variety of packaging formats. Providing a full suite of services, they deliver product innovation and packaging solutions to foodservice, co-manufacturing, industrial and retail private label customers. Select Foods embrace the principles of global food safety and are Food Safety Enhancement Program–Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (FSEP-HACCP), Kosher and Organic certified, and Safe Food Quality (SQF) ^{footnote 85[85]}.

Highlights and investment activities

McCormick Canada transitioned the blending, bottling and packaging of French’s Ketchup from a third-party Canadian supplier to an in-house production ^{footnote 86[86]}.

Trends

Trends in this sector include:

• consumers searching for products which boost their nutritional intake ^{footnote 87[87]}
• consumers adopting a healthier lifestyle and diet as a result of the COVID‑19 pandemic ^{footnote 87[87]}
• demand for convenience by consumers continuing to rise ^{footnote 87[87]}
• internationally inspired flavours keeping lockdown consumers connected with the exotic travel hotspots they cannot yet fly to ^{footnote 87[87]}
• signing of trade deals between Canada and the EU, the US and various countries in the Asia-Pacific region being likely to result in higher exports of Canadian products and fewer barriers to imports ^{footnote 2[2]}