SR&ED for food & beverage
Food science does more SR&ED than it claims, partly because the eligible work looks like everyday product development. The distinction the CRA draws is uncertainty: a new flavour is not SR&ED; solving a genuine technological problem to achieve it can be.
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Where the eligible work usually is
- Reformulating to remove or substitute an ingredient while holding taste, texture or stability, where the outcome was uncertain.
- Extending shelf life or improving food safety through a method that wasn't known to work.
- Developing or adapting a process — new equipment, new conditions — where scale-up or behaviour couldn't be predicted.
- Systematic trials whose results advanced what you knew about the formulation or process.
What usually doesn't qualify
Routine recipe development, flavour or cosmetic changes, standard quality control, and meeting a customer spec with established methods generally aren't SR&ED. The work can be creative and commercially valuable and still not clear the technological-uncertainty bar.
Evidence from the kitchen and the line
Food and beverage R&D leaves formulation trials, sensory and stability data, process-run records, and lab results. Upload them and SREDlog organizes them against the project, keeping the link between a claimed cost and the trial that supports it.
Frequently asked questions
Only the part, if any, where you had to resolve a genuine technological uncertainty. Creating a new recipe or flavour by established methods is routine development, not SR&ED.
It can, if achieving it required experimentation with an uncertain outcome rather than applying a known preservation method.
Formulation trials, sensory and stability testing, and process-run data are strong contemporaneous evidence. See documentation requirements.
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This guide is general information, not tax advice. SR&ED rules, rates and limits change, so confirm the current figures with the CRA or your advisor before you file.