Page 25 - Food&Drink Magazine November-December 2021

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The next caffeine hit
I Am Grounded co-founders Vanessa Murillo and Lachlan Powell are changing the way we look at coffee.
It is easy to forget that coffee is a fruit that is harvested solely for its beans, which only make up 10-20 per cent of the actual fruit. That means every year, around
20 billion kilograms of coffee fruit waste is produced globally.
I Am Grounded is determined to see the remaining 80-90 per cent of the fruit be upcycled into something new that is good for both people and the planet.
Since launching in March 2019, I Am Grounded has upcycled 2450 kilograms of coffee fruit waste into functional snack bars, and subsequently diverted around 1960 kilograms of CO2 emissions.
“When we harvest coffee for the seeds rather than the whole fruit, the part that isn’t used is thrown away; it simply rots,” co- founder Vanessa Murillo says.
“As it ferments naturally it starts to decompose, creating mycotoxins that leach into the soil and contaminate surrounding waterways. It also creates around 16.6 million megatons of CO2 emissions,” Murillo says.
In many countries where coffee is grown, there is a lack of facilities to properly compost the mass scale of waste produced, co-founder Lachlan Powell adds.
It is also a missed opportunity for farmers who could gain additional revenue selling the coffee fruit waste, repurposing it into a new value cycle.
“We were the first Australian company to join the Upcycled Food Association, a global organisation focused on bringing upcycled foods to the mass market,” says Powell.
“We wanted to look at the fruit as a food from the start, so we press the cascara into an extract, mix it with whole nuts and organic natural ingredients, and then make it into a raw bar,” says Powell.
Murillo and Powell spent a year experimenting with what they could make with the by-product, hand making snack bars before partnering with a co-packing facility in northern New South Wales.
Its better-for-you snack bars are made from the discarded by-product of coffee fruit – pulp, muselage and cascara – which is sourced from three farms overseas that upcycle the by-product into a concentrate during harvest.
The snack bars are connected to the times consumers feel like a snack – The 9am, The 3pm, and The Pick Me Up.
“Each bar has a green tea level of caffeine, so creating a product that has a nice, longer lasting buzz with functionality, plus the story of having this upcycled, discarded, by-product, is something that has really caught consumers’ interest,” Murillo says.
I am Grounded now manufactures around 4000 bars per SKU, and is set to scale up. ✷
Streaky, smoky, salty success
FROM home hobby to bespoke premium bacon, Simon Lawry and David Ball are on a quest to see the porcine product crowned the ‘king of meats’ with their brand Saltsmith delivering hand-made, free- range bacon products pushing flavour boundaries beyond the humble rasher.
The pair noticed a gap in the
market for genuinely high quality bacon. While most producers were focused on different cuts, Lawry and Ball decided to focus on streaky bacon and explore different ways of curing and smoking.
The pair are also quite partial to a whisky and it was discussions with Starward Whisky founder David Vitale that pushed
Saltsmith to the next level. Lawry and Ball decided to formally establish Saltsmith
and officially enter the charcuterie industry. What followed were three years of experimentation, flavour trials, and equipment and processing technique adjustments.
Using only streaky bacon and custom-built equipment they are building their reputation for a premium product with innovative flavours that challenge perceptions of what bacon can be through its Breakfast Bacon, Four Pepper Bacon, and flagship Maple Whisky Bacon.
“Most commercial producers don’t use traditional dry curing methods and that sets us apart,” says Lawry.
All curing ingredients are applied straight onto the belly. To ensure consistency and quality control across the curing process, Saltsmith weighs each belly and cures to the specific weight of the meat – each rasher being dry cured
for seven days. The bacon is cold-smoked and then cooked at a low temperature to maintain moisture in the meat.
For Saltsmith, incorporating a paddock to plate approach, eliminating distributors and working directly with local Victorian farmers so they can trace all produce back to pasture made the most sense.
Its current supplier in northern Victoria, Limestone, is approved by the Australian Pork Industry Quality assurance program and free range accredited.
With everything produced in-house, the Saltsmith team is evaluating how to balance sustainability and profitability. The company has transitioned from using vacuum sealed packs to boxes and are in the process of developing a sleeve for the retail market.
The duo are very optimistic about their future and are searching all avenues or growth and porcine success. ✷
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