Malting is traditionally associated with the brewing industry; what sparked the vision to redirect this sophisticated industrial process toward the broader health-ingredient market?
Our vision to "unleash the power of malt at every moment of the day" is what drove our move into adjacent markets. To bring that to life, we built a dedicated research and development (R&D) team made up of worldclass biotechnologists, nutrition experts, fermentation and extraction specialists, regulatory teams, to explore what malt can really do beyond brewing.
The insight is simple: malt is a naturally versatile ingredient with enormous untapped potential. It delivers many of the health and functional benefits that the industry is looking for from fermentable sugars and active enzymes to natural flavours ranging from peach to chocolate along with body, colour, vitamins, prebiotics and fibre. It also meets growing demand for clean-label, sustainable ingredients that can be sourced locally across temperate zones worldwide.
By rethinking the malting process itself, tweaking steeping, germination, and roasting parameters, we are unlocking new flavours and nutrients that were not possible in a purely brewing context. We are also applying biotechnology and fermentation expertise to grains like barley, peas, and wheat to create ingredients no one's seen before.
For food and beverage manufacturers facing pressure to reduce sugar, improve sustainability and support health, malt offers a compelling solution. It can replace or compliment ingredients such as cocoa and coffee. Malting has always been a sophisticated industrial process. What’s changes is how we are redirecting that expertise and passion toward a new frontier of innovation: making products that are genuinely better for people and the planet.
When applying malting techniques to ingredients like pulses, what are the most significant improvements in nutrition or functionality that developers should be excited about?
Malting transforms pulses, such as peas, soybeans, fava beans, lentils and chickpeas, into ingredients that work harder for both consumers and manufacturers. The improvements are substantial.
First, malting eliminates antinutritional factors like alpha-galactosides that cause digestive discomfort, making these plant proteins genuinely more digestible and enjoyable. But it goes further: the malting process naturally enhances the taste and nutritional profile while maintaining full processability.
Malted pulses also reduce cooking times dramatically and simplify dehulling.
What excites us most is this: malted legumes can directly replace raw seeds in existing applications.
This isn't a niche ingredient requiring specialized processes. It's an industrial-scale solution that's ready now - addressing the protein and healthy ingredients market demand while delivering the digestive comfort and nutritional integrity consumers increasingly demand.
The concept of crafting malt rootlets into high-value ingredients is fascinating; how does this approach align with the industry’s growing focus on functional and sustainable nutrition?
Malt rootlets represent a significant innovation we're launching at Bridge2Food -and they are a great example of how we're extracting untapped value from the malting process itself.
Rootlets are a natural by-product of grain germination during malting. As the sprout of a new plant, they are exceptionally nutrient dense and rich in protein and fibre with prebiotic compounds that support gut health. This profile can also measurably improve Nutri-score performance in finished products, which is increasingly central to consumer purchasing decisions.
What sets rootlets apart is their ability to improve texture, nutrition and formulation efficiency more effectively than traditional functional ingredients. In baked goods, they improve texture and mouthfeel, adding airiness and indulgence without the processing complexity or clean-label trade-offs of synthetic alternatives. They also support simpler formulations while delivering genuine functional benefits.
In summary, rootlets are poised to help food and beverage manufacturers address, and win, industry megatrends such a natural, plant-based nutrition; low- and no-alcohol beverage growth; and sustainable, waste-reduction manufacturing.
Which emerging technical or market discussions are you most looking forward to engaging in while we are at Bridge2Food Europe 2026 in Copenhagen?
Our engagement at Bridge2Food centres on a straightforward objective: understanding the real challenges manufacturers face in translating health and sustainability trends into shelf-ready products – and co-developing solutions the industry has not considered before.
We want to move the conversation from "malt as an interesting alternative" to "malt as a strategic ingredient" and solution to specific product categories and market challenges. Specifically, how manufacturers can reformulate to meet clean-label, Nutri-Score, and sugar-reduction targets without sacrificing sensory performance or supply chain resilience.
Too often, the industry defaults to incremental solutions within established ingredient categories. We're here to expand that conversation by demonstrating what malt can deliver as a functional ingredient platform.
We're also interested in scaling conversations. Malt is globally available. What we're bringing is the biotechnology expertise and malting know-how to unlock its functional value at an industrial scale.
Regarding your session on optimising germination to craft healthier ingredients, what is the most valuable discovery you hope the audience will walk away with?
The real insight is this: malt delivers functional benefits, clean label credentials, and cost-effective sustainability in a single ingredient. We're already hearing from major manufacturers, "We should have thought about malt years ago." That's market validation that tells us the industry is ready for a fundamental shift in how it approaches ingredient innovation.
My hope is that every person in this room leaves understanding that malt isn't a niche ingredient for beverages - it's a biotechnological solution that can reshape product development across food and nutrition. That's the perspective we're pioneering, and that's what the future of healthier, sustainable food looks like.