Giving food waste a new lease of life: How students turn beer brewing by-products to granola

Making granola from beer waste was never the intention of the moonbeam co., a food tech start-up by three undergraduate students and an alumnus of the National University of Singapore (NUS), and a graduate student from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

Mr Varden Toh, 25, one of the three co-founders of the start-up, recounts how in 2022, his team was looking to fully utilise unserved, cooked rice for their capstone project during their undergraduate days at NUS, and ended up with the solution to brew it into beer. 

But during the process, they found that for every two kilos of rice upcycled, a kilo of spent grain residue, which is rich in protein and fibre, was created.

Wanting to achieve a zero-waste production cycle, his team – comprising 26-year-old NUS pharmaceutical science graduate and NTU technopreneurship and innovation student Kong Qi Herng, 27-year-old NUS mechanical engineering graduate Lim Jia Wei, 23-year-old NUS philosophy, politics and economics student Lim Jie Qi and 20-year-old NUS business administration student Wong Liyang – researched ideas to save the spent grains, and landed on using granola to accompany the rice beer.

“While response to the beer was positive during the demonstration at NUS, it was the granola that stole the spotlight,” says Mr Toh.

the moonbeam co. recently emerged as one of five winners from 60 entries at the DBS Foundation X NEA Hungry for Change Challenge. The challenge is in line with DBS’ efforts to spur collective action towards zero food waste and supports the National Environment Agency (NEA)’s Youth for Environmental Sustainability movement, which encourages youths’ interest in environmental sustainability, in partnership with key community stakeholders.

The other winners include ChangeX, who are developing PanTree, an AI-powered app that generates recipe ideas for F&B outlets based on excess ingredients; tHEMEat Company, a food tech start-up that converts vegetable waste into flavouring for alternative proteins; Jiro-meat, a meat alternative made from soybean pulp; and Divert for 2nd Life, a holistic surplus food management service provider powered by tech and data that connects local communities with businesses and organisations that have surplus food. 

“The winning teams impressed the panel with their members' strong commitment to the sustainability cause, and their strong entrepreneurial spirit, which could help them persevere in their journey and potentially grow as social enterprises,” says Ms Lim Jing Ting, director of the 3P Network Division, Public Engagement Group at NEA.

the moonbeam co.’s pilot will test the feasibility of making large batches of bakeable grains, using spent grains taken from local breweries.

For tHEMEat Company, funds will go toward building a pilot plant to extract flavour catalysts from unwanted leafy vegetables and turn them into food flavouring that makes plant-based meat look, cook, smell and taste like the real deal.

“DBS and NEA were amongst the first organisations to believe in our project and vision,” says tHEMEat Company co-founder Max Tham, 33, an integrative sciences and engineering programme PhD graduate from NUS.

“The generous funding from DBS Foundation will enable us to test out the effectiveness of our ideas in the real world, while the combined knowledge and support of DBS and NEA can guide us in scaling up our idea and process to benefit the nation.”

Pointing to how their pilot has the potential to save up to 30,000 kilos of vegetable waste annually from disposal, Dr Tham says his NUS multidisciplinary team – comprising 23-year-old food science student Chia Jia Yang, 31-year-old food science graduate student Trinda Anne Ting and 22-year-old safety, health and environmental technology student Roshan Shahid Zubair Zakir Megathaj Begum – was “drawn to the research due to our intense collective interest in sustainability and food supply resilience”.

In 2021, Singapore generated about 817,000 tonnes of food waste, accounting for 12 per cent of its total waste. This is even as the Republic imports 90 per cent of its food, making food security a pressing concern.

“Looking at the amount of food that we waste, we knew that we had to do something,” adds the moonbeam co.’s Mr Toh. “We see food waste as a potential resource, waiting to be tapped.”

“Food waste is an issue close to the hearts of many young Singaporeans, and beyond a strong interest in the topic, many have a lot of creative ideas and are eager to contribute using their academic or technical training. Combining knowledge and passion, we hope the youths learn through piloting their ideas to tackle food waste,” says NEA’s Ms Lim.

For one, helping to meet the nation’s goal of producing 30 per cent of its own nutritional needs by 2030 was a key reason NUS food science and technology (FST) research assistant Heng Chin Wee, 29, spent four years investigating how okara or soybean pulp – leftover solids when tofu or soy milk is made – can be applied in various applications such as snacks and plant-based meat. 

Mr Heng and his team from the university – comprising 24-year-old FST student Isaac Yeo, 24-year-old NUS FST scientific officer Oh Kai Ling and 31-year-old Tai Hua Food Industries business development assistant director Carol Zheng Que – have developed Jiro-meat, an alternative meat which consists of 80 per cent okara. The group found that the high percentage of okara used in Jiro-meat’s formulation is an efficient method to upcycle the high-protein, low-fat by-product.

For its pilot, Jiro-meat will use Tai Hua’s facilities to process soybean pulp, courtesy of a local tofu puff manufacturer.

“It is a meaningful medium to work with, as it gives a second life to food that would have been thrown away and incinerated, contributing to the production of greenhouse gases,” says Mr Heng.

The Challenge demonstrates the Singapore youths’ energy, passion and creativity that – when combined with DBS Foundation’s network of ecosystem partners and financial support, as well as NEA’s knowledge in food waste and sustainability – can “create meaningful and impactful projects that can benefit the community,” says NEA’s Ms Lim.

“Singapore is home to many young, bright minds who care deeply about the deteriorating state of the world we’re living in and are developing meaningful solutions that can make an impact and drive change,” adds Ms Karen Ngui, DBS strategic marketing and communications group head and board member of DBS Foundation.

“We look forward to empowering this new generation of impact makers as they enhance and scale their business ideas in the coming months, so as to help Singapore to become more food resilient.”