To help address sanitizer shortages caused by COVID-19, a partnership between the University of Ottawa and Dairy Distillery in Almonte, Ontario has recently shifted its business to produce ethanol-based sanitizer.
The long-standing collaboration involves university researchers providing the distillery with the yeast to produce vodka. The yeasts, which serve as the starter culture, are prepared weekly in the University of Ottawa lab under sterile conditions.
Since the pandemic, the partnership is now using resources to produce sanitizer for health-care clinics, hospitals and veterinary clinics in the Almonte and Ottawa Valley regions. The team is also providing hand sanitizer to the Shepherds of Good Hope in Ottawa, an organization that works with homeless people.
To learn more, visit University of Ottawa.
