Vegetable and fruit residues that are currently disposed of as cutting waste can be converted via fermentation into a high-quality food supplement with a high concentration of vitamins B12. Use is made of a technology developed by Amsterdam Green Campus and partners. Entrepreneur Ad van Vugt sees new opportunities to do something about wasting food. He tells his story in the NHD.
Professor Jeroen Hugenholtz of Wageningen University & Research (WUR), the ‘inventor’ of the fermentation process.
With his idea, Ad van Vugt conquered a place in the Circular Innovation Top 20 of the province of North Holland. The plan is now at an advanced stage. Van Vugt has a company that supplies the vegetable residues, a company that can extract the vitamins B12 and a producer of meat substitutes that wants to purchase the organic B12. “The business should be up and running within a few months,” he expects. The problem or challenge is still to carry out the drying process on a large scale. “But we are well on the way with the help of knowledge institutes. It looks good.”
According to the NHD article, Van Vugt is working with vegetable packer Vezet from Warmenhuizen for the idea of extracting vitamin B12 from cutting waste. Other possible large suppliers are vegetable cutter Hessing and the company Heemskerk. Together, these companies account for the lion’s share of the cutting waste in the province.
The fermentation process that converts vegetable and fruit residues into high-quality food supplements was developed in the context of the POP-3 project Side streams. In addition to Amsterdam Green Campus, various partners are involved, including Wageningen University & Research (WUR), Oterap (Van Vugt’s investment company) and Greenport Noord-Holland Noord.
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