Summary

Regrained is a food upcycling company that has found new uses for the nutritious byproduct of making beet: spent grain. The company currently sources the spent grain from dozens of local breweries in San Francisco. Spent grain retains its nutritious value and was traditionally used by home cooks to make baked goods and other food items, but in today’s Big Food climate, tens of billions of pounds per year are wasted or fed to pigs. With help from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the company has developed a patent-pending technology to process and stabilize the brewery byproduct into a food-grade, value-added ingredient that may be used in numerous applications across the food industry. One of their current products is a flour mix that can be sourced to big names in the food industry (e.g., Barilla Pasta, etc.) (Source) The company has created a vertically integrated supply chain around harvesting grain from the breweries processing it with their flour. The other wing of the company focuses on creating a market for that flour. In addition to selling the flour, the company is also creating ready-to-eat products like bars and savory snacks. (Source)

Story

ReGrained was c-founded by UCLA students Daniel Kurzrock and Jordan Schwartz, who began home-brewing beer at their frathouse while studying economics. While making beer, they saw firsthand how much grain is wasted while only optimizing for the brewed liquid. The duo started experimenting with home made bread recipes and eventually started selling the loaves to friends. Eventually, they decided that there might be a big opportunity “to create a platform that can close the loop between the brewing industry and the food industry.” (Source) Thus, Regrained was founded.

Pic Credit: Regrained