From wine waste to high-value nutrient extracts

The challenge

Australian vitamin and health supplement companies together spend approximately $1.1 billion a year importing internationally processed extracts for their vitamins and supplements (Sampano, 2019).

For the industry, sourcing local Australian nutraceutical ingredients has been an expressed preference but a challenge. Meanwhile, the opportunity to transform volumes of Australia’s 7.6 million tonnes of annual food waste into high-value nutrient products had not been successfully explored.

The Australian wine industry crushed 1.7 million tonnes of wine grapes to produce wine in 2019, resulting in the generation of approximately 350,000 tonnes of grape skins and seeds (also known as grape marc). A range of nutraceutical bioactives can be derived from horticultural products and byproducts, one ingredient being grape seed extract.

Industry partner Swisse Wellness imported grape seed extract from overseas as it was not yet available in Australia. They were interested in exploring avenues for local supply of the ingredient.

The research

End Food Waste CRC collaborated with research partners Swinburne University of Technology, Viridi and Austeng to develop an engineering process to extract biologically important and commercially useful compounds from food waste streams for industry partner Swisse Wellness.

The research team identified and isolated high-purity polyphenol antioxidants from grape seeds, which include relatively high proportions of proanthocyanins – among the most powerful polyphenol antioxidants in the plant world. For Swisse, it was important to achieve consistency of quality across batches for commercial use in a consumer product and stability of the ingredient in formulation.

The research found that the antioxidant extracts could also be powderised in high purity, making the material more accessible, shelf-stable, and easily packaged and transported. This opens local and global opportunities for Australia.

The impact

As a direct result of this project, Swisse Wellness are able to source and produce Australian polyphenols derived from locally-sourced grape seeds, rather than importing material, for use in Swisse Beauty Grape Seed product.

Local sourcing also reduces the cost and emissions associated with transporting material globally. These benefits help to build a powerful sustainability story for the consumer.

Implementation of this research has the potential to reduce grape marc waste by around 35–40% per annum by converting this into high-value nutraceutical products. Other projects are underway to target the remaining fraction in order to utilise the whole waste stream.

Australia is now able to produce high-quality polyphenols that are considered ‘green’ and sustainable, so there is the potential for harnessing global demand for this premium Australian product. Within a diverse market, the exact dollar return will depend on the target market and the degree of purity required. Using green tea extract as a comparison due to its similarity, selling for US$30 per kilogram, the approximate return is US$20,000 per tonne of grape marc. The return depends on the demand for polyphenols and the cost of production, hence the need for a detailed economic study.

What’s next?

Given the new knowledge of the plant and process parameters, the next steps will include undertaking a business case/economic study to evaluate:

• the size of the local and global markets and price point maintainable for local provenance
• the best way for the plant to be optimised and scaled up to produce commercial quantities.

This could help create new business opportunities for the horticulture industry focussed on grape marc extraction. Potential business model are still to be explored, ideas include mobile plant deployed direct to wine-making facilities to treat the marc onsite or establishing a centralised plant that processes all the marc within a region.

Nick Mann, CEO for ANZ & Asia of global health and wellness company Swisse Wellness and industry partner on this project says,

‘We have been proud to support this wonderful research. Being able to convert a former waste stream into usable raw materials and utilise high-quality Australian ingredients for our products supports our commitments to our sustainability strategy and principles.’

Swisse endeavours to develop strong relationships with supply partners with a focus on improving quality, reliability and cost while engaging in sustainable procurement practices and protecting the ecosystem where raw materials are sourced. Co-operation and shared values regarding people and sustainability are key.

References:

A Roadmap for building the value chain for the neutriceuticals industry in Australia, Samapano Pty Ltd, 2019.