AB InBev innovates: cereal drink based on grain leftovers

The world’s largest beer brewer, AB InBev, managed to develop a nutritious, fiber-rich breakfast drink, created from the dry grain leftovers from the beer manufacturing process. The entire product was developed in Louvain.

Cereal drink ‘Canvas’

Beer brewers across the globe generate 30 million tons of grain leftovers, which are still rich in proteins and fiber. Usually, about 90 % of this is sent to farmers who use it to feed their cattle. The rest is thrown away as garbage, but that will now change.

Thanks to Louvain-based GITeC (AB InBev’s Global Innovation & Technology Center), the group can now use these leftovers as a foundation for new, high-quality, organic food. “Our new technology allows us to maintain the hundreds of thousands of proteins and fibers from our grain leftovers and to use their nutritional value for human consumption”, bio chemist Jorge Gil-Martinez said. “It could also lower carbon emissions by 75 % seeing how these organic food options are much more sustainable thanks to a circular economy than traditional food sources like meat.”

The first commercial application (in a potentially long line) is called a fiber-rich cereal drink, called Canvas. “Every bottle contains 39 % of a daily recommended dose of fiber”, the inventor said. “The cereal drink, launched as a Kickstarter project last year, is currently sold in five different flavours: cocoa, chai, latte, matcha and vanilla. Following its release on the US’ East Coast, the West Coast will son follow and if reactions remain positive, AB InBev will introduce the drink in Europe.