Proposing a ‘ReToast’ to less food waste
Food science and nutrition students Radhika Bharathi, Sonali Raghunath, Steven Cak, and Brigitta Yaputri made it their mission to tackle this waste. Their work led to the development of ReToast, a cookie in the shape of miniature toast that’s made with 30 percent ingredients from waste products. ReToast serves as a good source of fiber and can be enjoyed in three different flavors—cinnamon, mocha, and pumpkin spice.
The team’s innovative use of ingredients from bread and beer brewing waste enabled ReToast to win first place at the American Society of Baking Product Development Competition, a major sustainability achievement.
The upcycled ingredients used in ReToast are various food waste products, including bread scraps and brewers’ spent grain—a byproduct in the brewing industry. They’re used in the ReToast flour mix, which contains 63.6 percent toasted bread scraps flour, 21.6 percent spent grain flour, and 14.8 percent spent Kernza® flour.
The award-winning snack also comes in reusable and recyclable packaging made from tin and food-grade paper wraps to further reduce waste.
The most innovative ingredient in ReToast is spent Kernza, a promising perennial grain crop with the potential to fight climate change. Originally used only for livestock feed, the grain has recently been bred for human consumption. Kernza provides several environmental benefits because its roots, which can reach up to ten feet, deliver carbon to the soil while simultaneously producing more seed heads than normal wheat.