GrainGain

The challenge

Society is becoming increasingly aware of the need for an accessible, healthy, and sustainable way to nourish its population. Yet roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year – approximately 1.3 billion tonnes – gets lost or wasted. As parts of the world struggle to sustain basic nourishment others are stacking their landfills to the brim. Often this food is perfectly nutritious, high in protein and completely unused.

The solution

We, at GrainGain, aim to solve this global crisis by developing an innovative circular business model thereby regenerating food waste, reducing environmental pollution and providing the world with the nutrients they require. We believe the left over residue of the beer brewing process, spent grain, provides an ideal opportunity. Spent grain is high in protein and fibre, and is not currently used for human consumption. By collaborating with a local craft brewery, we have implemented a drying technique and have managed to create a variety of delicious and nutritious products, ranging from energy bars and protein powder to baking products. This feat earned us third place in the start-up competition VentureLab Groningen. We now plan to elaborate on this achievement by scaling up production in order to provide people with the nutrients they need, whether they need fuel after a workout or need the sustenance to survive. Further on we aim to expand our business by incorporating different sorts of by-products into our circular business.