Increasing the circularity of the bio-based sector: upcycling and recycling for higher value

We believe that solid-state fermentation, under moderate and mild conditions, will be sufficient and efficient to valorize the chosen side streams into safe, valuable food products. In order to understand the "Industry Willingness", we came together with companies in food industry. We clearly see that most of the large food manufacturing companies as well as several restaurants will be willing to adopt and integrate the new resource-efficient processing methods and tools into their existing competitive value chains. In order to comprehend the "Consumer Acceptance", we made several surveys with targeted consumers and told them our aims. We realized that consumers would accept and purchase the new food products created using up-cycled ingredients, perceiving them as safe and sustainable if we serve the tasty forms at affordable prices. We assume that the operational costs of the fermentation process are lower or comparable to the "highly technological and energy consumption processing techniques" currently used, thus remaining competitive, since we will use side streams as raw materials and use microorganisms at mild conditions to transform. But of course, the solid-state fermentation technology has not been matured yet and we need to work more detailed for technological feasibility in scaling up our processes.

We have been working together with partners from dairy, oil and fat, fruit/vegetable industries and Horeca sectors in order to valorize whey, rapeseed cake, pomegranate peels and coffee grounds. We have technological experience in submerged and solid-state fermentation. We already have two laboratories equipped with instrumental analysis equipments and fermentation reactors. We have also a cafe with a research kitchen to conduct co-creation studies.  We are looking partners for moving forward.