By Courtesy of Business Wire
Earth Day, April 22, is an opportunity to rethink the global food system to reduce its impact on the planet. According to IPCC estimates, by 2022, our food system will have generated 40% of greenhouse gases. But what if one solution was to make better use of what's currently considered waste? Integrating the stalks into flour production, for example, could drive down the carbon footprint of wheat growing.
Earth Day, April 22, is an opportunity to rethink the global food system to reduce its impact on the planet. According to IPCC estimates, by 2022, our food system will have generated 40% of greenhouse gases. But what if one solution was to make better use of what's currently considered waste? Integrating the stalks into flour production, for example, could drive down the carbon footprint of wheat growing.
As one of the world's most-produced crops, wheat is also among the oldest. Indeed, the Romans worshiped the goddess of the harvest and agriculture, Ceres, whose name is the origin of the word "cereal." However ancient it may be, this crop has always been used in much the same way, in that it is the grain itself that is of interest. From field to flour, the whole production process is focused on this single element. However, an ear of wheat is composed of other parts, including the stalk, which has long been seen as something only good for making straw bales.
But in Cambridge, UK a startup founded in 2017 is rethinking our food system by supplying it with a more sustainable raw material in the form of a more responsibly made flour. The concept is based on the idea of adding value to the parts of wheat crops that are considered waste, or what the British company, The Supplant, describes as the "forgotten half of the harvest." The Supplant estimates that as much as two-thirds of what is grown on a farm might not enter the food chain. According to the firm's data, 68% of a wheat crop is underutilized. For sugar cane, there could be as much as 78% of underutilized material, compared to 67% for rice and 49% for corn.
With regard to wheat, The Supplant's innovation lies in integrating stalks into the production of the flour. This addition considerably increases the amount of product that can potentially feed a population. This seems like an obvious approach, so why wasn't it been done before? In fact, the wheat stalk is a hollow container that has no real nutritional value, other than as a great source of fiber, and it is on this property that The Supplant is capitalizing to make a difference. By integrating an under-valued material into its flour production, the company is offering a new product that is six times richer in fiber than traditional flour. It can be used to make pasta and a whole range of food products. In the United States, the Michelin-starred chef Thomas Keller has agreed to collaborate with the British start-up and is using it in his kitchen. Curious foodies who haven't planned to book a table in one of the American chef's restaurants can taste the result by pre-ordering a package of pasta made from this flour.
This flour isn't The Supplant's first product. Its very first project focused on obtaining a sugar extracted from fiber from agricultural waste. To do this, enzymes from fungi are used to break down the long chains of sugars present in the fiber. And the qualities of this sugar will no doubt interest patients with diabetes, since it has a lower glycemic index than regular sugar. It also contains 1.8 calories per gram, compared to 4 grams for table sugar. So far, this new sugar has been used to make products including shortbread-style cookies and chocolate.
