SOMERVILLE, MA — Brewer’s Foods, a family-owned food company with a mission of upcycling “spent grain” from the beer brewing process, has introduced the relaunch of its popular flatbread cracker line. The crunchy oven-baked crackers are available in two flavors — Sea Salt and Everything — and are highly nutritious thanks to its star ingredient, sprouted grains.
Brewer’s Foods had taken a hit when, due to COVID-19, its manufacturing facility was no longer able to keep up with the high demand the brand had worked to achieve.
“Finding a new facility on short notice in the middle of a pandemic could have been the end of us,” said Kyle Fiasconaro, founder of Brewer’s Foods.
By finding a new bakery space, Brewer’s Foods is now able to meet the demand and has the added opportunity to create new, more eco-friendly packaging. Prior to the relaunch, Brewer’s packaged its flatbread crackers in a standard plastic container.
“It never felt right to be putting so much plastic back out into the world and ultimately into the trash. It seemed contradictory to our mission of fighting food waste and keeping food out of landfills,” said Matthew Fiasconaro, co-founder of Brewer’s Foods.
"It never felt right to be putting so much plastic back out into the world and ultimately into the trash. It seemed contradictory to our mission of fighting food waste and keeping food out of landfills.'' —Matthew Fiasconaro | co-founder | Brewer’s Foods
The new packaging reduces the amount of plastic being used by 90%. By maintaining just 10% of the original plastic packaging, the company can still provide a window for consumers to see the actual product rather than an image.
“We hope we have put ourselves in a favorable position with consumers and buyers who are environmentally conscious and with lawmakers who are cracking down on single-use plastic,” Kyle Fiasconaro said.
This is just one step of Brewer’s Foods’ efforts to reduce food waste in the craft-brewing industry. Rather than ending up in a crowded landfill or on a farm as animal feed, Brewer’s Foods — a member of the Upcycled Food Association — takes the spent grains from breweries to create their line of sustainable products. Brewer’s estimates that to date it has saved more than 500,000 lbs. of high-quality “spent grain.”
