About

Annually, over 15 million tonnes of waste are produced by canola oil and brewing industries in Europe. Current use of these side-streams as feed seriously undervalues their potential for improved economics and ecology. With simple fractionation methods, food-grade compounds could be isolated and sold to the food processing market as valuable nutrients. The challenge is to combine existing technologies into a robust, inexpensive and effective process suitable for varying and scattered material streams coming from small-scale units.

The objectives of Prowaste are:

• To develop biorefinery fractionation process and pilot a concept biorefinery.
• To produce food-grade protein and dietary fibre isolates from underutilised side-streams, including canola press cake, spent barley and oat hulls.
• To test ingredient properties, such as antinutrient contents and bioactivity as antioxidant agents.
• To screen for other potential input materials.
• To test for protein and dietary fibre fraction utilisability.
• To test the sidestreams and their fractions in concept foods.

Results

• Biorefinery concept for small and medium size farm and processing industries, with variable volumes and output material composition.
• Technological solutions for drying and fractionating side-streams gently and cost-effectively.
• New food-grade protein and fibre isolates with improved sensory characteristics and bioactivities.
• Concept food products enriched with fibre and protein, resulting in improved nutrient levels and a basis for development of added value foods for special food categories.