Progress 09/01/20 to 01/17/22

Outputs
Target Audience:The intended audiences include: 1) breweries to demonstrate the feasibility of utilizing spent grains for higher value products; 2) potential investors in Northern Spent Grains who may (always!) want to see the process and product further derisked before making investment decisions; and 3) NSG's partner companies to demonstrate the role of each partner in the full supply chain from source to final product. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Northern Spent Grains achieved or exceeded all project goals related to the potential commercialization of brewer's spent grain flours in extruded/expanded snacks. Targets were exceeded for quantity of spent grains sourced, dried, milled, and fractionated. We successfully used fractionation to improve protein and fiber content, though we fell just short of initial targets for further increases in protein content. Expansion and extrusion tests were completed and met goals for puff size and geometry. The following includes a summary of project accomplishments across each of the six tasks outlined in the original application. Task 1) Source BSG: Northern Spent Grains exceeded goals for quantities of BSG sourced from breweries without changes in partners or scope. Task 2) Dry BSG: We exceeded our goals for dried material without changes in partners or scope, sourcing enough wet material from known grain bills to yield more than 4 times the original goal for dried material. Task 3) Mill and fractionate BSG: Working with a leading Maine flour mill, we milled more than 10 times the original target for milled grains. After milling, we used a variety of fractionation methods to determine whether commercially-viable methods could be used to increase protein content in the baseline flours (already high in protein) to an even higher-protein flours. We were able to increase protein content in the flours, but we fell short of our original goals for the proportional increase. Due to likely losses during fractionation, we determined that the protein content in the baseline flour was very high compared to competing flour products, and the benefit of fractionating to achieve even higher protein was likely not enough to be economical. Task 4) Extrusion and expansion testing: The purpose of this task was to test a variety of ingredient mixtures in expansion tests to maximize our ability to market a differentiated healthy product with BSG as a major ingredient. Our goal was to produce a puffed product with 'acceptable' expansion characteristics from BSG flours. 'Acceptability' was defined with a quantitative target for sectional expansion index (SEI) and bulk density. All goals were met for SEI and bulk density the baseline BSG flours with several different ingredient mixes. The strong performance of the expansion trials is expected to allow a wide range of ingredient mixes to be used with the BSG flours. Task 5) Nutritional analyses: The milestone for this task was to analyze the base flours and the final puffed product to develop nutritional profiles for the flours and most promising puffed products. All nutritional analyses were completed and did not raise any concerns for commercial viability. Task 6) Regulatory review: In alignment with our goal for this task, we drafted a document identifying regulatory compliance needs for BSG sourcing through final packaged products. This goal was met and identified several important regulatory considerations, primarily during sourcing and drying.

Publications

Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21

Outputs
Target Audience:The intended audiences include: 1) breweries to demonstrate the feasibility of utilizing spent grains for higher value products; 2) potential investors in Northern Spent Grains who may want to see the process and product further derisked before making investment decisions; and 3) NSG's partner companies to demonstrate the role of each partner in the full supply chain from source to final product. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?An additional set of extrusion/expansion trials is scheduled for the next reporting period, and nutrional analyses will be completed.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Northern Spent Grains made significant progress against all project goals. Targets were exceeded for quantity of spent grains sourced, dried, milled, and fractionated. We successfully used fractionation to improve protein and fiber content. Initial expansion and extrusion tests have been completed and met goals for puff size andgeometry. Nutritional analyses are underway and an additional set of extrusion/expansion trials has beenscheduled.

Publications