Wholly-Veggie-cauliflower

© Wholly Veggie

Food & Beverage

The 8 Most Exciting Brands Saving Food Waste by Upcycling Ingredients

Here at vegconomist we applaud and support innovation in plant-based but especially those who are working on upcycling ingredients and helping to solve the horrific global issue of food waste whereby around a third of the food produced around the world is discarded. The issue is beyond imperative but it is not beyond solution, so we here celebrate some of the brands innovating for our planet, upcycling ingredients from spent grain, to cashew fruit, to cauliflower and carrots. Spent barley from the beer industry – Take Two Portland-based Take Two transforms barley grains leftover from beer brewing into nutritious, fiber-rich barley milk. A subsidiary of EverGrain, owned by beer giant Anheuser-Busch InBev, Take Two reuses over 500,000 pounds of discarded grain each year. Co-Founder & …

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BBQ sandwich with cashew fruit meat

©Cajú Love

Products & Launches

Cajú Love: Upcycled Cashew Meat That Cooks Like Chicken, Pork, Tuna or Ground Meat

Cajú Love introduces the first ever cashew fruit meat, created by upcycling the millions of fruits discarded by the cashew nut and cashew juice industries every year. The Hawaiian startup says that the highly nutritious fruit is naturally meaty cooks just like chicken, pork, tuna or ground meat. Founders Alana and Felipe, first generation immigrants from Brazil and Colombia, began to explore the idea of diverting biowaste, using cashew fruit fibers to create a plant-based meat, and found the fruit to be an incredibly sustainable resource; since it is a by-product, cashew fruit meat does not require additional water or land for production. Additionally, the cashew “apple” offers huge health benefits: it is rich in fat, fiber, minerals, protein, tannins, and vitamin C. Cashew apples …

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