Jaipur pioneers local and industrial upcycling to transform food waste into nutritious ingredients

In Jaipur, entrepreneurs are combining local farm-based upcycling with industrial valorisation to create sustainable, nutritious food products from imperfect produce and processing side streams, signalling a progressive shift towards a more circular food system.

In Jaipur, a small but growing group of entrepreneurs and processors is reframing what counts as food by turning cosmetically imperfect produce and industrial side streams into nutritious, marketable ingredients...

At FoodTekPack’s circular food processing session, Aditi Jhala, founder of The Misfits, described a localisation-first model that works directly with organic farmers in and around Jaipur to rescue produce rejected by conventional retail standards and convert it into shelf-stable, nutrition-forward foods. According to The Misfits’ account, the company , founded by Vinita and Aditi Jhala in 2024 , has upcycled around 277 kilograms of vegetables since inception and pays farmers fair prices for items that would otherwise be lost. Products include a red onion relish infused with Ashwagandha, a coriander-based pesto made from carrot tops, a moringa pesto and a chocolate spread made with pumpkin puree and chickpeas. Jhala said, “Nearly one-third of food grown globally is wasted, which can be upcycled by transforming surplus, imperfect or by-product ingredients which are suitable for human consumption into higher-value consumer food products.”

Jhala argued that upcycling delivers tangible environmental benefits by reducing waste at source and conserving water, land and energy, helping “shift the food system from linear to circular, making it regenerative instead of extractive.” From a processing perspective she urged product design that accepts variability in raw materials rather than rejecting them , a practical imperative for shorter, local food chains that link farmers more directly with urban consumers. The work in Jaipur is complemented by a permanent Organic Fresh Farmers Market established by the Organic Farmer Producer Association of India, which provides a local retail platform and a point of contact between producers and consumers.

At the industrial end of the spectrum, Buhler India’s sales manager Nitin Sanduja illustrated how the same circular logic can scale by valorising large-volume side streams such as brewers’ spent grain (BSG). “From a food processing standpoint, the circular economy is not merely a sustainability concept but a system-level redesign of how raw materials, by-products and side streams are handled,” he said. Sanduja outlined processing routes , stabilisation, decontamination, conditioning and extrusion , that turn BSG from cattle feed into fibre- and protein-rich ingredients for human food applications. He noted that for every 100 litres of beer brewed roughly 20 kilograms of BSG is produced and that extrusion technologies can yield inclusion levels from about 11–24% in dry formats to up to 40% in high-moisture extrusion alongside plant proteins.

Bühler’s Legria ingredient exemplifies this industrial approach. According to a Bühler Group report, Legria is produced from BSG and supplies a ingredient with high dietary fibre and significant protein, suitable for breads, biscuits, cereals and plant-based meat analogues; the company says it is low in sugar and rich in B vitamins and minerals. Bühler demonstrated a 500 kg-per-hour high‑moisture extrusion line upcycling wet BSG directly from a Swiss brewery into plant-based high-protein products, underscoring the potential for brewery‑adjacent processing hubs to reduce drying needs, cut carbon emissions and improve economics.

Other industry examples reinforce the technical and commercial viability of BSG valorisation. A Bühler-supported startup description states its Legria process uses fermentation and extraction to produce an ingredient containing roughly 54% fibre and 20% protein with functional properties such as emulsification and antioxidant activity. Alfa Laval has documented the use of thermal and separation technologies to recover protein from spent grain for clean‑label, energy‑efficient production, while commercial processors such as Upgrain, Agrain and BiaSol have developed brewery‑on‑site or near‑site systems to produce protein and fibre extracts that are sold into baking and plant‑based meat formulations. Industry case studies and technology suppliers consistently stress that circularity must align with food safety, functionality and economics if it is to scale.

The convergence of small-scale, farmer‑centric upcycling and industrial valorisation illustrates complementary routes to reduce food loss across the value chain. Local initiatives such as The Misfits address farm‑level and post‑harvest losses while creating differentiated products that can improve farmer incomes and meet urban consumer demand for nutrition and sustainability. At the same time, industrial solutions recover large, steady volumes of material from mainstream crops and processing residues , bran, husk, germ, press cakes and spent grains , and convert them into standardised ingredients for mass food manufacturing.

Challenges remain. Scaling up requires investment in stabilisation and processing infrastructure, reliable logistics to preserve quality between farm and processor, demonstrable food‑safety controls, and consumer acceptance of products made from upcycled inputs. Processors and technology providers emphasise that adopting circular models also depends on creating viable economic incentives for both primary producers and manufacturers.

Taken together, the Jaipur experiences and the industrial demonstrations point to a pragmatic, multi‑tiered pathway toward a more circular food system: design products to tolerate natural variability, locate processing close to raw‑material sources where possible, and treat by‑products as secondary raw materials rather than waste. The result, proponents say, is improved resource efficiency, additional income streams for farmers and processors, and new ingredient options to bolster nutritional density across food portfolios.

Source: Noah Wire Services