Culinology - June 2018 - 44

PETITS fours

ReGrained turning trash into treasure
The topic of innovating with food
waste is topping trend lists as
emerging brands showcase
creative uses for such
items as coffee fruit and
leftover pulp from juice
production.
"Our whole mission
is to reduce waste
and feed people,"
said Daniel Kurzrock,
co-founder and
chief executive officer of food startup ReGrained, San
Francisco.
The star ingredient
of ReGrained snack bars
is brewers' spent grain, an
unsavory term for a nutritious,
functional byproduct of beer making. The brand, which sources from
local breweries, was built as a platform for
this previously undervalued ingredient.
With help from the US Department of
Agriculture, ReGrained has developed a patent-pending technology to process and stabilize the brewery byproduct into a food-grade,
value-added ingredient called ReGrained
Supergrain+ flour.

ReGrained currently offers three snack
bars in craft beer inspired varieties, including
honey cinnamon IPA, chocolate coffee stout
and the recently added blueberry sunflower
saison.
Co-founder and chief operating officer
Jordan Schwartz developed the initial recipes
for the bars, which he and Mr. Kurzrock began selling at a local farmers market five years
ago featuring the tagline "Eat beer." Early last
year, they added people to the team, including a trained pastry chef, Philip Saneski, as
vice-president of product.
"It turns out hiring a chef helps make your
products taste good," Mr. Kurzrock said.
Mr. Saneski shared the vision and passion
for reducing food waste. "I think the restaurant chef can transform things that are typically thrown out into the garbage into things
that are really delicious," he said.
Mr. Saneski described the flavor of
ReGrained SuperGrain+ as similar to toasted
almonds or oatmeal with a graham cracker
aroma. In addition to baking applications,
the flour may be used in coatings or as a
binder or thickener, he said. ReGrained's next
products will include savory snacks such as
pretzels that showcase the grain's flavor, Mr.
Kurzrock said, describing it as "the hero, not
just in name but in taste."

Students seek solutions for spent grain
The concept for Ourgrain, a student-led initiative dedicated to finding new ways
to reuse brewers' spent grain, first bubbled up at the 2017 Research Chefs
Association (RCA) Evolution of Food Waste Competition. A group of Johnson &
Wales University students studying culinary nutrition, food science and product
development presented their concept for hazelnut doppio scones made with
spent grain, and took home first prize in the competition.
Since then, recent graduates including Jessie Pulling, Victor Eng, Ray
Holloway, Sam Gannon, Sam Burgess, Natasha Daniels and Nicole Gresko
have created a business plan and launched a Kickstarter fundraiser to support ongoing development of their vision for commercializing guilt-free treats
that have a positive impact on the environment. The students exhibited at the
RCA Culinology Expo in Savannah, Ga., this year and have been accepted into the
MassChallenge Business Accelerator program.

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Culinology | JUNE 2018

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