January 24, 2023 (Vancouver, BC) – Tait Labs is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a $10,000 grant from the Circular Economy Seed Funding program. The funds will be used for a collaborative research and development project with the research group of Professor Vikramaditya Yadav. The project is entitled “Bioconversion of citrus peel residues to edible proteins as an enabler of total valorization“
The company had recently developed and patented a clean extraction technology for citrus peels capable of converting 50% of waste peel mass into a high-value prebiotic-rich fiber. Now, the company seeks to achieve its second objective of total utilization of peel waste by upcycling the remaining 50% of the residue, using it as a novel substrate for yeast fermentation into single-cell protein (SCP). The ultimate goal is to help sustainably stave off the “protein crisis” – meeting the nutritional requirements of the world’s population whose growth past 10B will require an increase of 70% in protein-rich food production by 2050.
Circular Economy Seed Funding is coordinated by the University of British Columbia’s of Materials and Manufacturing Research Institute (MMRI), with the support from the National Research Council of Canada- Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP).