World's first soya wine from tofu by-product

You can raise a toast to a greener Christmas this year with the world's first soya wine - and other food innovations.

Made from soya whey, a liquid by-product of tofu manufacturing, Sachi is also the first wine produced in Singapore.

It is made by local food start-up SinFooTech which spent five years developing a patented fermentation process to turn whey into wine.

According to its chief executive Jonathan Ng, a tofu factory can produce up to 200 tonnes of soya whey each day.

He said: "While Sachi is an example of reusing something that would be thrown away, we didn't make it just to market it as a sustainable food product, but also wanted to create something that new generations of consumers can enjoy."

The wine is available at Sachi's online store at $30 for a 500ml bottle.

Mr Ng added that SinFooTech is also producing bubble tea pearls using soya bean pulp.

At Christmas dinners, turkey and roast beef are a common sight but the impact of consuming them might not just be limited to your waistline.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, an agency of the United Nations, each kilogram of beef results in the production of 300kg of CO2 equivalent.

Another player in the local food tech scene, Gaia Foods, is helping to reduce the festive footprint.

It is the first South-east Asian company to produce red meat by using stem cell technology to grow the meat in a nutrient-rich environment with sample cells from the animal.

The company claims this process produces at least 80 per cent less emissions than current beef production methods.

Gaia Foods was acquired in August by local food tech company Shiok Meats, which produces the world's first cell-based crab meat.