Chinova Bioworks recently celebrated its fifth year anniversary and is now focused on rapidly scaling up manufacturing for its clean-label upcycled mushroom extract that functions as a natural preservative. 

Speaking to FoodIngredientsFirst, the company’s co-founders share insights on the company’s proprietary ingredient, branded as Chiber.

“Chiber is a natural fiber extracted from the stems of white button mushrooms and provides the same benefit as other dietary fibers,” details Natasha Dhayagude, CEO and co-founder of Chinova Bioworks.

“While Chiber’s main use is to enhance the quality and shelf life of food and beverages, it also provides nutritional value to consumers at the same time, as it is a fiber. Chiber is the first ingredient of its kind to have both preservation and nutritional benefits.”

This ingredient is vegan, non-GMO, kosher, halal, organic compliant, allergen-free and does not have any sensory impact on any favorite food or beverage products.

Expansion and relocation 
The company recently relocated to a larger and newly built 20,000 sq ft Bioscience Manufacturing Incubator space and a new 6,000 sq ft building for expanded office and R&D lab.

In five years, Chinova has succeeded in getting Chiber through regulatory approvals in North America and 70 other jurisdictions.

“White button mushrooms are commonly and widely accepted within the food industry; we have had no regulatory hurdles in marketing our claims,” says Dhayagude.

The company has also launched three Chiber products in the market with additional products in the queue this year, while working with plant-based brands and securing patents around its core technology. 

“This expansion is going to ensure we can keep ahead of the incredible growth in demand we’ve been seeing from our current customers, and build capacity to service additional food and beverage products,” says David Brown, co-founder of Chiber.

“We’ve demonstrated over the last three years that we can manufacture this ingredient to the highest quality standards in the industry by achieving the highest grades and certifications for food quality. This growth in capacity will further our excellence in quality manufacturing.”

Roots of Chiber
Dhayagude and Brown met at an entrepreneurship accelerator and incubator center in New Brunswick and found a common interest in the science of mushrooms, reducing food waste and sustainable solutions for clean-label ingredients. 

They launched Chinova Bioworks on April 21, 2016, with their Chiber product.

By collecting mushroom stems from agricultural waste streams and upcycling them into a commercially viable product, the company offers a food protection solution that allows formulators to reduce food waste, while saving costs and extending the shelf life for a fresher, cleaner product.

“Consumers are demanding transparency when it comes to the ingredients in their food and beverage products. They want natural, healthy, sustainable ingredients that have a purpose,” says Dhayagude.

“Because of this increased awareness and scrutiny, ingredient producers and brands are under pressure to reformulate and keep up,” she adds.

“Companies that we work with are very aware that they need a replacement for artificial ingredients to preserve product quality, freshness and shelf life.

Dhayagude and Brown say the COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated the need for Chiber. Consumers have had more time to consider and voice their concerns over ingredient labels as the demand for food safety and cleaner products remain front and center.

Upcycling for value-added ingredients
Upcycling was notably pegged as “the new recycling,” by Innova Market Insights in its “The Sustain Domain” Top Trend for 2020.

In this space, Dutch health ingredients innovator NutriLeads is experimenting with new food ingredients made with immunity-supporting plant compounds from upcycled raw waste material, such as carrots.

Similarly, CP Kelco’s Nutrava Citrus Fiber is sourced from intact citrus peels from the juicing industry and is marketed as a replacement for eggs, starch and xanthan gum.

Also in this space, Renewal Mill specializes in “oat okara” – a nutritious flour made from the pulp leftover when plant milk is made. The company primarily works with pulps such as oat pulp, soybean pulp and almond pulp. 

Last November, Barry Callebaut began a new eco-initiative to upcycle its cocoa shells into biochar, which looks similar to charcoal, supplies green energy, and reduces carbon emissions at the chocolate and cocoa giant’s operations.

Meanwhile, Germany-based start-up Spoontainable has created edible spoons that provide a circular and environment-neutral alternative to single-use cutlery. The manufacturer upcycles unused cocoa shells and oat husks in the process.

Transforming food waste into products for human consumption could become standard practice as the world’s population grows, according to a recent report by Oakland Innovation, part of a consumer science group.