Development of nutraceuticals from by-products from the brewing industry

Brewers’ spent grain (BSG) is the most abundant by-product of the brewing industry, constituting approximately 85% (w/w) of the total by-products generated during beer production, which has been shown to contain abundant proteins (20%~30%) with good nutritional benefits(Wen, Zhang, Duan, Zhang, & Ma, 2019). It is estimated that over 38 million tons of BSG are produced worldwide each year. However, this protein-enriched by-product is generally used as cattle feed or simply thrown away(Garrett, Bellmer, McGlynn, & Rayas-Duarte, 2021), while as many as 811million people still go hungry with world hunger affecting 9.9% of people worldwide("World Hunger: Key Facts and Statistics 2021,"). Currently, due to the severe food insecure situations, academic and industrial researchers are putting more effort to reduce the amount of such waste by finding alternative applications apart from the current general uses(Aliyu & Bala, 2011). So far, numerous studies have indicated that BSGP hydrolysates have good bioactivities, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and angiotensin-Ⅰ-converting inhibitory activities, among others(Wen et al., 2019). However, to the best of our knowledge, although the research on the development of peptides-enriched protein has notably increased, the studies to translate the new findings into practical or commercial uses remains delayed. Based on the above situation, this proposed research performs a comprehensive investigation on the cost-effective and environmentally friendly extraction methods of protein from BSG, BSGP characterization, and assessment of biological activities of BSGP and its related hydrolysates (BSGPH). Besides, special emphasis will be placed on the comparative experiments between solid-state fermentation and enzymatic hydrolysing, value-added food development, and the techno-functional characterizations of the developed food products. As a results, this project aims to broade the potential applications of BSG by developing value-added food product in green and sustainable principles, achieve great economic benefits for industry production, and alleviate the current food insecure issues.