AB InBev releases meat range and backs beer waste snack brand

AB InBev is making strides into the food industry, teaming up with Coleman Natural Foods to release a meat line in the US while also looking into ways to develop a snack brand produced from recycled protein from the brewing process.

AB InBev brand Budweiser has teamed up with Coleman Natural Foods to release a range of meats infused with beer. The range includes beer infused brats (sausages) and pulled pork and pork spare ribs coated in Budweiser Brew Master’s barbecue sauce.

The range, a total of five different items, will go into grocery stores across the US this summer.

Bart Vittori, general manager of Coleman Natural Meats, said: “Budweiser is an iconic brand that is recognised throughout the US with impressive advertising and marketing. The Coleman and Budweiser partnership will help create awareness for the millennial consumers to stop and shop in the processed meat case.

“The processed meat department has been hungry for new innovations and new customers – The Budweiser and Coleman licensing agreement will drive sales in a flat category within this section of the store.

“Coleman and Budweiser are combining their dedication to the US family farmers and animal welfare with these new products.”

The food manufacturer hopes that the products will bring a “new younger audience” to the sector and encourage consumers to migrate from the beer aisle to the prepared meat section.

In addition to its meat investment, Protes, the food investment division of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s venture arm ZX Ventures, is developing snacks made from protein sourced from spent grain, according to reports from Bloomberg. 

According to co-founder Krik Angacian, the company, which already produces pea protein-infused chips and popcorn, is aiming have its salty snack made from beer byproducts on the market in 2020.

Tom Allison, head of investment strategy at ZX, told the news site that Protes was looking to expand the up-cycling part of its portfolio and was “looking for opportunities to repurpose waste streams, such as the protein in spent grain.”

Last month it was also reported that AB InBev was also converting the wasted alcohol the production of its low and no-ABV beers into biofuel, having teamed up with a plant in Belgium. As demand for such drinks rises, AB InBev is looking at ways to reuse alcohol that was once simply boiled off in the de-alcoholisation process.

It now transports 75,000 litres of ‘waste’ alcohol each week from its European headquarters in Leuven to Belgian biofuel producer Alcogroup, one of the largest plants of its kind on the continent.

Alcohol from 85 cans of beer generates 1 litre of biofuel, according to the brewer. For every 100 litres of residual alcohol, 18 litres of biofuel is produced.