Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King announced that Atlantic Corporation in Waterville and Northern Spent Grains in Yarmouth have been awarded a total of $206,000 to advance food science and nutrition through early stage research and development projects.  This funding was awarded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program.

“Small businesses are the backbone of Maine’s economy, and helping them to reach their growth potential strengthens our communities and creates new employment opportunities, particularly in rural areas of our state,” said Senators Collins and King in a joint statement.  “We commend the USDA for recognizing the importance of fostering promising business ventures and innovation that support Maine jobs.”

The funding was allocated as follows:

• Atlantic Corporation in Waterville was awarded $106,000 to develop a dairy manufacturing and processing solutions tool for farms and value-added producers.

• Northern Spent Grains in Yarmouth was awarded $100,000 to produce low-calorie, high-protein snacks from brewers’ spent grains.

The SBIR Program encourages the growth of domestic small businesses by offering competitively awarded grants to support high-quality research related to important scientific problems and opportunities in agriculture.  These small business ventures are recognized as having the potential for larger scale commercialization as well as benefits to the community at large.