Vegan ‘egg whites’ produced from beer waste

van den Berg told Food Navigator: “If you go for the dried egg whites that are used in industry, it’s a 10-fold increase per kilogram – 40kg CO₂/kg.

“If you compare this to our process, you can achieve over 95% reduction of CO₂ equivalent. It is an enormous step.”​

Commenting on how he would source the spent yeast going forward, van den Berg added: “Once we scale up further and have all the logistics in place – including good collaborations with brewers – it makes more sense to source directly from beer makers.​

“As it stands, spent yeast is most commonly mixed with spent grain for animal feed. It is a low value resource, and we plan to upgrade that.”​

FUMI is marketing its product to the meat-replacement market, as well as the baking sector.

As mentioned above, brewing yeast has been used to produce a range of different products. Earlier this year, beer giant AB InBev announced that it was converting wasted alcohol from its low and no-ABV beers into biofuel, combining two major trends in the drinks industry. The brewing powerhouse is also researching ways to develop a snack brand produced from recycled protein from the brewing process.

Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle have devised a way of making paper from spent grain leftover from brewing, while scientists at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have developed a technique that turns 85% of the waste produced in the process of beer brewing into yeast nutrients for more brewing.

Back in 2014, Spanish scientists made an unusual discovery, having developed a new biomaterial from waste discarded after beer brewing which can be used to regenerate human bones.