Funded project – Reducing food waste in manufacturing by developing food products

Last updated: 30 August 2023
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Project lead: Benzoil Pty Ltd
Project partners: Grainout, Monash Food Innovation, Mansfields Pty Ltd
Status: In progress
Funding source: Recycling Victoria Innovation Fund – Round one
Funding amount: $75,000
Co-contribution: $75,000

Converting pea pollard into new food innovations and establishing a process to upcycle surplus food products (that are traditionally diverted as animal feed).

Background

There is a large supply of pea pollard and edible food manufacturing waste in Australia.

This project established a process to upcycle the food waste products into value added products suitable for human consumption.

It increased the value of pea pollard, a waste by-product from the processing of pea and lentils, by developing product concepts and transforming it into new products – such as pea flour – for human consumption. GrainOut has access to 350,000kg of pea pollard per year for this project.

The project also established a process for transforming manufacturing food waste into new products.

GrainOut drew upon the skills and expertise of Monash Food Innovation (MFI) at Monash University. MFI's New Frontiers program provided detailed analysis on the Australian market and consumer insights to inform GrainOut on current trends and data. This process generated a pipeline of new product ideas relating to GrainOut’s business challenge. The new product ideas were then tested against consumer insights to produce final product concept designs of a new plant-based food product (complete with packaging and label designs).

By upcycling and repurposing food waste, this project benefits Victorian food manufacturers by providing solutions on how to channel their food waste to food for human consumption. This facilitates food manufacturers to increase the value of their food waste (by-products and ingredients).

In this video, pea flour – made from pea pollard – is processed by a method called ‘stoneground flour milling’ which retains antioxidants, B vitamins, proteins, minerals and healthy fats that are lost in commercial flour milling.

Objectives

Make new products from food waste (e.g. plant-based textiles, vitamin supplements, ingredients and meals).

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Get in touch

Contact:

Grain Out info@grainout.com.au