Raisio, Nordic Umami Co exploring upcycling opportunities

Raisio-Nordic-Umami-Co-exploring-upcycling-opportunities.png
Raisio partners on upcycled umami flavouring / Pic: Raisio

Raisio and the Nordic Umami Company have entered into a partnership to develop upcycling opportunities.

The Nordic Umami Company develops ‘sustainable flavour innovations’ from food industry by-products. The company focuses on umami, the ’meaty’ flavour that is ‘naturally missing from plant-based proteins’.

“In a process based on nature enhancing nature, the Nordic Umami Company has developed food technology that can extract this umami from plant-based ingredients. The technology has a patent pending,” the companies revealed.

In co-operation with Raisio, the Nordic Umami Company is now researching possibilities to use its technology to create value from Raisio’s production side streams. They will explore opportunities to upcycle Raisio’s plant-based side streams to produce ‘natural umami’, they revealed. 

“Nordic Umami Company aims to accelerate the development of a sustainable food system. The partnership with Raisio enables us to further develop our umami technology and helps us to scale our production to an industrial level,” said Tytti-Lotta Ojala, Chief Design Officer at the Nordic Umami Company.

Raisio targets sustainable, circular food culture

As much as 14% of edible food is lost in the value chain before retail. Announcing the tie-up, Raisio said the collaboration will help support its efforts to minimise food and production waste and better utilize by-products.

“We share mutual goals with the Nordic Umami Company. We also want to build a sustainable food system and the partnership holds a lot of potential for both parties,” said Raisio Chief Business Officer, Annika Boström-Kumlin.

The partnership's primary target is to upcycle plant-based by-products from Raisio's manufacturing footprint into new food ingredients. The secondary goal is to find opportunities to use the created umami in Raisio’s products, the companies said. 

“The innovation by the Nordic Umami Company is a welcome addition for naturally enhancing umami,” added Boström-Kumlin.

Raisio and the Nordic Umami Company have agreed to partner until the end of the year 2022, with the option of extending their cooperation thereafter.