Mr Redman toured Canon Food's facility in Canning Vale with managing director Richard Pace on Tuesday, also the day of the company's 26th year anniversary.

"It's extremely encouraging for myself as Minister to go and have a close look and understand how Canon Foods works, Richard's been able to walk me through what he does, and what challenges he faces," Mr Redman said.

"From my perspective, we need to try and set up an environment in WA that encourages more Richard Paces investing into this value-add industry in WA, so we can have not only an industry here that supports employment, but also supporting some of those bigger initiatives that are happening in WA such as Gorgon."

Canon Foods is the only company in the world with a MicroFree guarantee which allows it to produce cooked chicken pieces fresh with a 16-week shelf life.

It is this ability to produce long-life food that makes Canon Foods so attractive to the mining industry.

Even though the firm is based in Perth, 60 per cent of Canon Food's production goes to the east coast.

Mr Pace said it was exciting to win the contract to supply the Compass Group with convenience foods, and felt privileged to be part of the project.

While he said the extra contract will not grow the business a huge amount, it will allow it to invest in more research.

"It's allowed us to put a practical side to our research and further evolve our MicroFree guarantee technology," he said.