Press Releases

PORTLAND, MAINE – Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) today announced two small businesses in Maine’s 1st District will receive more than $200,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program, administered by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). These USDA grants, which were awarded to Northern Spent Grains in Yarmouth and Atlantic Corporation in Waterville, help small businesses to advance food science and nutrition through a variety of early stage research and development projects.

“These USDA innovation grants will help Maine’s rural economy to grow at a time when many small businesses are suffering from this economic downturn. Atlantic Corporation and Northern Spent Grains will use this federal investment to advance products which hold great potential to innovate the dairy industry and to turn food waste into a profitable new snack food,” said Congresswoman Pingree. “As a member of the House Appropriations and House Agriculture Committees, I’ve long advocated for greater investment in sustainable agriculture because it is a win-win for business and our environment.”

Details of the grants are as follows:

• Northern Spent Grains, Yarmouth: Address technical barriers to turning spent grains from breweries into ingredients for healthy snacks: $100,000. 
• Atlantic Corporation, LLC, Waterville: Develop an interactive, spatial-visualization, business planning tool called Dairy Manufacturing and Processing Solutions "DairyMAPS" to assist dairy operations and processors of all sizes with early stage planning in creating expanded revenue streams through the development of niche dairy beverages using onsite, small-scale, Vat or high-temperature short-time (HTST) processing lines: $106,000.

This press release is available online here.

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