RiceBran Technologies (NASDAQ:RIBT) a global leader in the development and manufacture of nutritional and functional ingredients derived from rice and other small and ancient grains for human food, nutraceutical, pet care and equine feed applications, today announced that the Company is pursuing upcycle certification from the Upcycled Food Association.
The UFA Upcycled Certified™ Program is the world's first third-party certification program for upcycled food ingredients and products. The flagship of the Program is the on-package mark, which helps retailers feature upcycled products on shelf, and indicates to consumers which products are Upcycled Certified™, providing the opportunity to prevent food waste with every purchase. The mark highlights upcycled ingredients and products procured and produced with surplus food or food by-products from manufacturing, that use verifiable supply chains and have a positive impact on the environment.
RiceBran's Stabilized Rice Bran (SRB) has always been an upcycled product. RiceBran's proprietary processes preserve the nutritive value of rice bran in a stabilized format by giving it a sufficient shelf-life to make it a compelling ingredient to replace soy, corn, and wheat alternatives across a wide range of applications for human and animal consumption. Before RiceBran Technologies' stabilization processes rice bran could only be used as a low-value animal feed and was often discarded.
"Upcycle certification is an important step for RiceBran to gain traction with impact-focused consumers, demonstrating that not only is our stabilized rice bran a healthy, hypoallergenic, non-GMO alternative, but an ingredient that materially reduces food waste," said RiceBran Chairman Peter Bradley. "Without our proprietary processes, rice bran would be little more than animal feed, with a significant portion wasted. By taking this waste and turning it into wellness, we provide significant added value to the entire supply chain, from farmers to retailers, creating a regionally sourced, healthy option where one did not previously exist."
"This certification will create additional incentives to farmers to adopt sustainable practices, critical to a healthy environment and a healthy economy," said Sherry Rhoads, Vice President Compliance, Regulatory and External Affairs at RiceBran Technologies. "When we achieve UFA certification, it will help food manufacturers to communicate the important concept of food waste mitigation to customers. Increasingly, consumers are looking for sustainable, natural, and healthy foods, and RiceBran Technologies is uniquely poised to meet this demand."
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