Brewer's spent grain as food ingredient

Purpose and goals

This project aims at developing and optimising methods that contribute to an increased usage of BSG as a food ingredient. Specific goals include to:

• develop a process for handling BSG in the entire chain from brewery to final product
• improve the performance of BSG as food ingredient by optimisation of the processing (milling, fermentation, enzyme treatment)
• establish the correlation between processing and the overall quality of the final products
• produce in pilot-scale, and evaluate, one bread and one breakfast cereal, containing at least 30 % BSG

Challenges

There are several challenges that need to be resolved since there are a few factors that limit the use of BSG in the food industry. The high moisture content (70–80%) presents problems with microbial growth. In addition, the high fiber content can have a detrimental effect on sensory and rheological properties.

Solution

BSG requires pre-treatment to make it suitable for use in food products. Several processes can be applied and this work includes three of these, i.e. milling, fermentation and enzymatic processing. They are used both as stand-alone methods and in combination. These processes have different effects on the properties of BSG, especially regarding taste, texture and nutritional quality. 

Effect

This project aims at developing and optimising methods that contribute to an increased usage of BSG as a food ingredient generating nutritional and economic benefits, thereby contributing to the circular economy of this readily available side-stream.