Live from the Montreal SIAL Food Innovation Show: Jacqueline Day, Founder & CEO, Real Treat Kitchen Ltd.
Sylvain and I were thrilled to be the official podcast of the SIAL food innovation trade show held in Montreal in April; for many, the first in-person event since the COVID era began two years ago. We had the opportunity to meet and get to know many food innovators and entrepreneurs, creators and makers from many facets of the food industry. These are their stories. In this episode: Jacqueline Day, Founder & CEO, Real Treat Kitchen Ltd.
The Food Professor · Jacqueline Day
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Show Notes
Welcome to another special SIAL bonus episodes of The Food Professor podcast!
Sylvain and I were thrilled to be the official podcast of the SIAL food innovation trade show held in Montreal in April; for many, the first in-person event since the COVID era began two years ago.
We had the opportunity to meet and get to know many food innovators and entrepreneurs, creators and makers from many facets of the food industry. These are their stories.
In this episode: Jacqueline Day, Founder & CEO, Real Treat Kitchen Ltd.
Thanks for joining us on this special bonus episode of The Food Professor. Stay tuned for plenty of great interviews from our podcast studio on the trade show floor in Montreal at SIAL, and stay tuned for our regular full length episodes available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google - wherever you enjoy your podcasts today.
About Jacqueline:
As a working actor through my teens and twenties the immense pressure of the industry led me to develop a relationship to food that was less than healthy. Once food became the enemy it was easy to forget about the joy food can bring.
Rebuilding my relationship with food meant discovering it as an outlet for my own creativity while learning to embrace a balanced approach to food, and life.
During this time I became passionate about flavour, and a strong proponent of organic agriculture.
In my corporate career I exercised my ability to design processes and implement structures that create efficiencies, enabling teams to focus on what they do best.
These experiences paved the way to me founding Real Treat in 2014. It’s hard to imagine a job more creatively fulfilling and intellectually challenging than this, and I love it!
Creating and sharing delicious organic food that brings joy to peoples lives while supporting the health of our planet and ourselves is my purpose.
If you’re interested in a partnership or our products , send me a message!
Learn more and shop online at https://realtreat.ca/
About Us
Dr. Sylvain Charlebois
Dr. Sylvain Charlebois is a Professor in food distribution and policy in the Faculties of Management and Agriculture at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is also the Senior Director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab, also located at Dalhousie University. Before joining Dalhousie, he was affiliated with the University of Guelph’s Arrell Food Institute, which he co-founded. Known as “The Food Professor”, his current research interest lies in the broad area of food distribution, security and safety. Google Scholar ranks him as one of the world's most cited scholars in food supply chain management, food value chains and traceability.
He has authored five books on global food systems, his most recent one published in 2017 by Wiley-Blackwell entitled “Food Safety, Risk Intelligence and Benchmarking”. He has also published over 500 peer-reviewed journal articles in several academic publications. Furthermore, his research has been featured in several newspapers and media groups, including The Lancet, The Economist, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BBC, NBC, ABC, Fox News, Foreign Affairs, the Globe & Mail, the National Post and the Toronto Star.
Dr. Charlebois sits on a few company boards, and supports many organizations as a special advisor, including some publicly traded companies. Charlebois is also a member of the Scientific Council of the Business Scientific Institute, based in Luxemburg. Dr. Charlebois is a member of the Global Food Traceability Centre’s Advisory Board based in Washington DC, and a member of the National Scientific Committee of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in Ottawa.
Michael LeBlanc is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience, and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael is the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts including Canada’s top retail industry podcast, The Voice of Retail, plus Global E-Commerce Tech Talks , The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois and now in its second season, Conversations with CommerceNext! You can learn more about Michael here or on LinkedIn.
Be sure and check out Michael's latest adventure for fun and influencer riches - Last Request Barbecue, his YouTube BBQ cooking channel!
About Us
Dr. Sylvain Charlebois is a Visiting Professor in Food Policy and Distribution at McGill University and a Professor in Food Distribution and Policy in the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is also the Senior Director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab, also located at Dalhousie University.
Known as “The Food Professor”, his current research interest lies in the broad area of food distribution, security and safety. He is one of the world’s most cited scholars in food supply chain management, food value chains and traceability with over 775 published peer-reviewed journal articles. Dr. Charlebois is also an editor for the prestigious Trends in Food Science Technology journal.
He co-hosts The Food Professor podcast, discussing issues in the food, foodservice, grocery and restaurant industries and which is the most listened Canadian management podcast in Canada.
Every year since 2012, he has published the now highly anticipated Canadian Food Price Report, which provides an overview of food price trends for the coming year. Furthermore, his research has been featured in several newspapers and media groups, nationally as well as internationally. He has testified on several occasions before parliamentary committees on food policy-related issues as an expert witness. He has been asked to act as an advisor on food and agricultural policies in many Canadian provinces and other countries.
With extensive experience collaborating with businesses, governments, and NGOs, Dr. Charlebois combines academic rigor with practical expertise, making him one of the most influential voices in the global agri-food landscape. His work continues to advance the understanding of food systems, fostering innovation and resilience in a rapidly evolving industry. In 2025, he received the prestigious Charles III medal recognizing his tremendous work in informing Canadians about food issues.
Michael LeBlanc is a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and media entrepreneur. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions hosted senior retail executive on-stage in 1:1 interviews worldwide. Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including The Remarkable Retail Podcast, The Voice of Retail, The Food Professor, The FEED powered by Loblaw and the Global eCommerce Leaders podcast. He has been recognized by the National Retail Federation (NRF) as a global Top Retail Voice for 2025 and 2025, and continues to be a ReThink Retail Top Retail Expert for the fifth year in a row.