News

Understanding changing food trends in Canada requires access to rapid consumer insights, helping the agri-food industry explore, learn and innovate.

Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab (AAL) is pleased to announce a new partnership with Caddle, Canada’s largest mobile-first insights platform that rewards Canadians for sharing data and engaging with brands.

This three-year partnership will ensure that the very latest of consumer food trends will inform the analytics lab and enable them to interpret trends in real time.

Caddle will provide a generous annual contribution of rapid insights, valued at $150,000 to Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab and its Scientific Director Dr. Sylvain Charlebois over the next three years, covering a range of relevant food-related topics.

“We are excited to launch this partnership with Dalhousie and Dr. Sylvain Charlebois because they understand the need for regular and timely insights in Canada’s food space,” said Ransom Hawley, President & CEO, Caddle. “We pride ourselves in being trusted by them to deliver these insights from the largest daily active panel in Canada, with speed and accuracy.”

Caddle was founded in 2015, after a chance meeting with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Ransom Hawley recognized the growing need in the Canadian marketplace to help brands make better decisions, faster and with timely data, relevant to this market. Caddle works with top brands in the country like PepsiCo, Nestlé and Nielsen, providing rapid insights solutions at every stage of the consumer journey.

The AAL aims to understand the future of agri-food systems through analytics. The bilingual institute provides a global knowledge hub and space for sharing intelligence, research and learning on food security, agriculture, aquaculture, agri-business, and social aspects of food.

Each year, the AAL publishes a wide range of high-impact and highly accessible reports, including 12 studies on specific agri-food issues. These reports supplement each December's publication of Canada’s Food Price Report which is read by over 80 million each year.   

“Caddle has been an amazing company to work with so far,” says Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, Scientific Director, Agri-Food Analytics Lab.  “As a partner, they truly understand what we are trying to achieve as a Lab focused on the future of food.”

This exciting partnership was announced during an online public talk  Rapid Consumer Insights: Shaping the Canadian Agri-Food System, where new research produced from the partnership was released.  The research reported on January 2021 survey results from over 10,000 Canadians on food literacy.