Lebensmittel-Cluster OÖ: Umami Power instead of Food Waste
Date: 19.09.2025
Focus Topic: Innovation in Life Sciences und Biotechnology
Food production often generates by-products that remain unused. This is also the case with the press cake from the production of a fermented pumpkin seed seasoning sauce. Instead of disposing of it, two companies from Upper Austria, together with the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria (FH OÖ), are developing new products – sending a strong signal for circular economy and regional value creation. The Food Cluster Upper Austria is supporting the project.
The company Luvi Fermente from Timelkam uses the protein-rich press cake from pumpkin seed oil production instead of soybeans for one of its sauces. "We combine it with roasted wheat, salt and mold cultures, then let the mixture ferment. This creates the typical umami notes," explains managing director Christine Brameshuber. After separating the sauce, a highly aromatic press cake remains – but it is currently not being further utilized.
Powder with Flavor
The R&D specialist Innov8 from Oftering aims to use previously untapped fermented by-products as the basis for a powdered clean-label seasoning and is developing a process for this purpose. "We want to extract natural flavor carriers such as glutamic acid, nucleotides and other umami-enhancing components from the press cake and make them technologically usable," says managing director Wolfgang Schmidtgrabmer. Scientific support comes from the FH OÖ Research & Development GmbH.
Additional information
Contact
Alexander Pindur Projektmanager Lebensmittel-Cluster OÖ
alexander.pindur@biz-up.at