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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.
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