Raising the Bar: Upcycling Innovations from Central Europe

The Cocktail Balance is joining in celebrating June as Upcycled Food Month, first with a focus on innovations from within Central Europe - and all of them are related to the bar industry in some way.

On a world-side scale, the difficulties affecting the food process can seem overwhelming and beyond our control: drought or flooding, late frosts or scorching temperatures, contaminants or war. 

But there is one error in the food system that is under our more direct influence, and that innovative thinkers in Central Europe are taking steps to combat: food loss and food waste.

The Upcycled Food Association has dedicated June as Upcycled Food Month, “honoring the importance of reducing food waste, promoting sustainability, and building a better food system.” 

The Cocktail Balance is joining in, first highlighting upcycling efforts in Central Europe, all related to the bar industry in some way. From spent brewer’s grain, spent coffee grounds, stone fruit kernels, retail, and even dirt, here are five ways upcycling is improving the food system in an often overlooked part of Europe.

Co-producing together for a better market (Hungary)

After running a food business in Berlin and finishing a masters in Food Innovation at the Future Food Institute in Bologna, Julia Dalmadi returned to her native Hungary, ready to improve the sustainability of the foodscape in the country. How to do so, however, required a few pivots. 

To show the local market that an upcycling food company is possible, she set one up using brewer’s spent grain (BSG), the grain left over after being malted for beer. Often used as animal feed, BSG is suitable for human consumption and is high in fibre and protein. Julia grew her business Secontaste step by step, starting with making BSG granola in another granola maker’s kitchen. 

Source: Secontaste

She’s a proponent of testing the waters before investing, so to say. What the market is willing to spend dictates, for example, where she buys oat flakes. “I’d love to buy Hungarian grown oats or make our own brewer’s spent grain flour,” Julia says, “but I also have to be aware of what the market is willing to spend or even eat before investing. Neophobia, the fear of anything new, is a reality when presenting a food with a new component.”

Just the fact that a company is sustainable is not enough of a reason for people to buy a food product. First of all, she says, the product has to taste good. “If it doesn’t taste great, no one will buy it. Then, it has to meet personal needs, maybe some dietary restrictions or lifestyle convenience. And only in third place is the interest in conscious eating.”

Secontaste is not just about granola and crackers, as deliciously eco as they are. Julia stresses that working together and cooperating with others is the only way forward, whether connecting sources and makers, sharing technology know-how, or even co-producing products. 

For example, the bar Elysian in Budapest heard about their BSG crackers, bought the plain version, and then upcycled their own leftovers to flavour the crackers. Now, the two are working together to develop cracker flavours for the wider market.

Secontaste has also hosted hands-on events with Grapoila, a company that makes cold-pressed oils and then flours from the dry residue left over. Secondtaste also works with another company to produce a dip made from mushrooms that are too ugly for the supermarket, and they’ve worked with retailers to promote upcycled food products. 

The educational power of supermarkets (Czechia)

Retailers have immense power to bring solutions to consumers, says Julia. It’s the place where every day people go to buy food with the convenience of buying everything at one stop. A retailer can educate consumers even just by having such solutions available, which is why she approached the online grocer Rolik.cz with the idea of creating an upcycled category with local products. 

Rohlik is an online supermarket offering fast delivery within most of Czechia and a wide selection of fresh, high-quality food – including products from local farmers, organic producers, and small suppliers. They were the first grocery retailer in Europe to launch a dedicated category for upcycled food, showing that sustainability and innovation can go hand in hand.

Products from the upcycled food category. Source: Rohlik.cz

“We see upcycling as an innovative way to make efficient use of available resources, reduce food waste, and create new opportunities – especially for small and sustainable producers. This initiative is a natural extension of our ongoing mission to offer not just quality food, but food with purpose,” they wrote. 

Clearly, there is an interest for such products in the market. In the first few months alone, more than 16,600 customers bought upcycled products and over 31,500 units were sold, a confirmation that people want to support sustainable solutions.

Products include gelato made with leftover whey and pumpkin seed flour left after pressing oil, tortillas made from carrot fiber left after juicing, crackers from spent brewer’s grain, and gin made from surplus or not-pretty-enough fruit and herbs from the store itself. Each product includes an explanation of which ingredient is upcycled. 

Gin made from the grocer’s surplus and “ugly” produce. Source: Rohlik.cz

By clearly labeling and organizing a separate upcycled food category, the retailer makes buying and thus supporting such food products clear and accessible. They also educate their customers, explaining what upcycling is, how the products are made, and why it matters to give food a second life. 

By being better informed through a retailer, consumers can then make more informed choices even when not at a specific store, but overall.

Pivot to impact (Poland)

Start ups often need to pivot as they refine their business model and products, and such is the case with EcoBean. Motivated to utilise the wasted potential of used coffee grounds, the original plan of EcoBean was to turn them into coffee briquets to use on grills.

But that initial idea was just the start to developing the most advanced process in the world that unlocks the full potential of Spent Coffee Grounds. 

Source: EcoBean

Eight years, over 7000 tests, Covid shutdown complications, and a whole lot of R&D later, the company has not only developed a method of creating five different products from one batch of spent coffee grounds (SCG) in a single process, they also realized that making a cup of coffee doesn’t use 30% of the potential of the grounds, but only 10%. 

They started to gather spent grounds from local sources, such as cafes and gas stations, bring them to a central processing plant, and turn waste into valuable products. The company has functioned that way for years, with an app, reverse logistics agreement with GLS, and partnerships with brands such as Starbucks. 

The system worked, but in the process EcoBean identified an area where, instead of building costly biorefineries in each country and filling them with SCG from disparate sources, they can make a bigger and faster impact right where Spent Coffee Grounds are generated on a massive scale: instant coffee factories and industrial roasteries. EcoBean doesn't just tell factories they can reduce their waste; it shows them that SCG can become a new, very attractive revenue stream. 

EcoBean has now created a modular processing installation that can be easily built next to coffee processing plants. An instant coffee factory can make 40k tons of coffee ground waste in one year, and with EcoBean, one ton of spent grounds can be worth €9,000.

All five products are made from one batch of SCG. Source: EcoBean

“We have to speak the business language,” says Kacper Kossowski, co-founder of EcoBean, “and help industrial companies realize that they can make a profit from what is wasted right now. They can make up the investment in our system in 2-3 years, and from then on it only adds to their profit margins.”

Companies in the coffee industry are among the first to be impacted by climate change, with drought and high temperatures causing the price of coffee beans to increase nearly 100% within the last year. Fortunately, in this case making a greater profit and being more ecological go hand-in-hand. 

With the EcoBean process, the whole amount of grounds is used, resulting in no wasted leftovers. The five products created are: coffee oil; antioxidants; polylactide (bioplastic); protein additives; and lignin (fiber). None of these products are new or novel, says Kacper, they are already used but created from other sources, including fossil fuels. 

Products of EcoBean for food and cosmetics industries were recently confirmed as being “natural”, meaning that they can be used in natural cosmetics and body care products. They also have a calculated carbon footprint which is very low when compared to market alternatives. This can contribute to reducing the overall carbon footprint of other companies using their products. 

Part of the process involved becoming a certified B-Corp company. While EcoBean already knew that they were a sustainable company, getting the certification was a third-party recognition and proof against greenwashing that other companies and investors would trust.

The greatest benefit, however, is the community that has resulted, says Kacper. “B-Corp hosts working groups, workshops and such events, and through it we are able to network with other companies that such a small company way out in Poland would normally have difficulties being able to reach.”

By creating a modular plant, EcoBean can take their innovation anywhere in the world, upcycling waste into a resource right at the source for the greatest impact.

Experimenting to find solutions (Austria)

Finding new ways to use currently wasted resources takes innovation - and a lot of experimenting. Like the spent coffee grounds, experimenting was needed to find the best ways to use the stones from fruit. 

Stone fruit grow abundantly in Central Europe and are used to make jams, juices, and distillates, also known as schnapps, pálenka, and eau-de-vie. While it is (somewhat) common knowledge that the kernels are edible, the particularly tough nature of the stone shell has been an obstacle to using the inner nut.

When a farmer showed Michael Beitl how much apricot stones he had to throw away, and how delicious apricot seeds are, Michael knew there had to be a way to turn waste into a resource. With three others, the group co-founded Kern Tec, sharing both business and technical knowledge. 

Plum pits Source: Kern Tec

The first challenge was to find a way to efficiently crack the shells. “The great thing about engineering,” says Michael, “is that it is very logical thinking. We all brainstormed ways to open the shells, even shooting them at high velocity at a wall.” Experimenting together led them to a breakthrough, enabling them to access the edible kernels in apricots, plums, and cherries. 

Finding a way to use the shell is something Michael is particularly proud of. 80% of the pit is shell, but it’s not edible. After more experimenting with various uses and grinds, two functions have proven to be most popular: landscaping mulch and powder for face and body products. The powder replaces microplastics used in cosmetic and body products. 

The benefit of using the seeds is not only that it turns waste into a raw material but it can be a more ecological alternative to nuts in oils, as snacks, and even in dairy alternative products. No orchards are grown specifically for the seed, no extra agrochemicals, land, emissions, or water is required to produce them; it has all already been done for the fruit. 

All three types of kernels are pressed for oil that can be used both for edible and cosmetic purposes. Apricot kernels can be used in much the same way as almonds or hazelnuts; Kern Tec recently made a deal with a chocolate manufacturer to use diced apricot kernels in their chocolate instead of almonds. 

They can also be ground to a paste and used to make plant-based dairy alternatives, from milk and yogurt to cream cheese. However, Michael said, the market is somewhat stagnant after a boom in plant-based products. 

Eventually, Kern Tec would like to take their process to other places and countries, so everyone can upcycle the current waste of stone fruit pits into a valuable commodity. 

Already upcycling at the beginning (Slovakia)

At first glance, it might not seem like Ekolive is involved in upcycling food, but that would be a superficial glance. Gastronomy itself depends on innovations like Ekolive. Ekolive doesn’t upcycle food, but dirt and minerals, the substrate plants need to grow in. 

Darina Štyriaková’s parents, one a microbiologist and one in the mining industry, developed a way to treat mining waste using microorganisms years ago. The process can be used to decontaminate polluted soil, or treat raw materials for industrial purposes. 

For example, glass can only be made from white sand, but there is a lack of such sand; brown sand is much more abundant. Using microorganisms, the minerals causing the brown colour can be extracted, or leached out, resulting in white sand ready to be made into glass. 

Darina Štyriaková Source: Ekolive

Almost by accident, Ekolive discovered that the liquid resulting from the bioleaching in fact has an incredible impact on soil and plant health, with astounding results in agriculture. A number of factors come into play, from minerals being bioavailable through the “predigestion” of the microorganisms, to organic acids and ethanol produced by the microorganisms, to the activity of the microorganisms themselves. 

Just as the human microbiome is receiving recognition of the myriad of ways it influences human health, now scientists are realising the importance of the soil microbiome. 

The bioleached liquid is called a biostimulant, a natural or biological substance that stimulates natural processes to enhance plant health, growth, and stress tolerance. 18 essential nutrients nourish the plant and microorganisms pre-produce phytohormones and enzymes which are not only absorbed by the plant but also stimulate production of phytohormones in the plant itself. The resulting plant is so strong that it can resist disease, as well as extreme temperatures or water shortage. Strong plants are even able to repel insects better, as insects search out weak plants. 

“Imagine your whole life you’ve been eating antibiotics,” says Darina. “You wouldn’t be so strong. We’re providing nutrients and beneficial organisms in a way that supports the plant. The cell wall becomes so strong that an insect doesn’t want to chew through it.”

Numerous studies and photos on the Ekolive website attest to healthier plants and increased production. Minerals also highly influence the taste of the plants.

An organic strawberry farm in eastern Slovakia used the biostimulants in addition to regular fertilizer on one section and only regular fertilizer on another. Soon it could be seen that the root systems of the Ekolive treated plants were larger and much more established. 

Photos showing two sections of strawberries, one with and one without Ekolive. Source: Ekolive

By harvest, there was much less wasted fruit than normal as stronger and bigger leaves meant fewer berries were lost to sunburn. The size of the strawberries increased, and the taste improved, in the farm’s opinion, by 30%.  The sugar content was 150% higher than before, which meant that the amount of alcohol produced during distillation tripled. The distillery company had never seen such a fresh and strong strawberry aroma in “jahodovica”, strawberry eau de vie. 

While the Ekolive process is well able to remediate polluted soil, unfortunately most politicians prefer to cover up problems than solve them, says Darina. As well, a lot of money is involved in monitoring contamination, rather than cleaning it up. 

But for agriculture and gastronomy, Ekolive makes not only environmental sense but also financial sense. Less disease and more resilience, less waste and bigger harvests, and, the clincher, better tasting plants, means that delicious gastronomy can be based in both ecologically and economically friendly agriculture. 

* * * * 

Whether upcycling wasted food, making it more easily available, or supporting agriculture, all these activities across Central Europe are linked by a desire for sustainability to not be limited to nice ideas or greenwashing, but a viable business model that also helps the planet and the people who live on it.