From waste to taste

Using biotechnology to reduce food loss, the Danish company REDUCED has specialized in creating highquality natural flavour solutions using ingredients that are typically discarded.

Representing 8% of global greenhouse gas emission, the total amount food that is lost or wasted globally corresponds to 1.6 billion tons of food.

Therefore, reducing food loss and waste is not only a necessary step towards sustainable development, but also a good business opportunity.

From second-grade vegetables to umami flavours

In Denmark, REDUCED, an innovative flavour solutions company, has specialized in creating high-quality savoury flavours using upcycled agricultural and food industry by-products.

By utilising surplus ingredients from the agriculture- and food industry, such as rape seed cakes, broken lentils, chickens from egg production, shore crabs, and secondgrade vegetables, REDUCED is fighting food loss while contributing to a more sustainable food industry.

The company transform the surplus ingredients into high-quality flavours with a unique and patented method. The method is called accelerated fermentation and is a combination of artisanal fermentation and new biotechnology. This method incorporates a specific fungal spore known as koji, which generates enzymes capable of unlocking umami characteristics in the by-products. As a result, REDUCED can efficiently transform diverse waste streams into a variety of additive-free savoury flavourings within a limited time frame.

60 tonnes of food waste – not wasted

For now, REDUCED has taken 60 tonnes of agricultural and food industry by-products and transformed it into natural food products using biotechnology in their IFS Global Markets Food certified production in Copenhagen.

The company is on the trajectory to process 500 tonnes of agricultural and food industry by-products in the two next years and has decreased its processing time with 300% during the past year, resulting in massive energy savings. All with the purpose to create taste from by-products.

REDUCED has taken 60 tonnes of agricultural and food industry by-products and transformed it into natural food products