Brewed to perfection, sustainably

Collecting food scraps from restaurants and byproducts from food processing facilities and diverting them from landfills has gained traction around the world. While outcomes as animal feed or as anaerobic digestion (AD) feedstock may be most common, Travin Singh of Singapore has blazed a different trail.

Singh founded the Crust Group there in 2018 to explore ways to convert surplus food, food scraps and byproducts into craft beer. Crust Group now operates in Singapore and Japan, and offers a non-alcoholic beverages under its Crop brand.

Singh will be speaking at the April CleanEnviro Summit Singapore (CESG) 2022 conference as part of its Resource Sustainability track. The organizers of the CESG offered Waste Today senior editor Brian Taylor a chance to interview Singh about his four-year-old company.

Waste Today (WT): When and how did the idea of upcycling surplus ingredients the Crust Group way take hold with you?

Travin Singh (TS): Back in 2018, I wanted to start a business, but did not want to just start a company with the sole purpose of earning money. I wanted to build a value-based company that gained profit but was mostly about finding solutions; kind of a reference for how businesses would be done in the future. I wanted to show people that money is a byproduct of doing the right things in the right way. I grew up with the mentality to not waste food. Since young, my mum will cook for us and if we do not finish the food on the day itself, she will incorporate it into something new tomorrow. That is the ideology in terms of starting Crust, creating a value-based company: developing value-based products that reduce food waste.

WT: To what extent do you find some potential Crust beverage drinkers are “turned off” by the idea of beer made from surplus materials? How do you overcome such objections?

TS: When we first launched, I think people didn’t totally understand what we were doing. They confused food waste and food loss and thought that we were taking food that had been consumed or used by others and turning it into beer. Actually, we were taking surplus ingredients that hadn’t been used or sold. Now that we are three years in the market, more people understood what we are doing through educating them about concepts such as upcycling, and perceptions have changed.

WT: How has the attempt to use fruit flavors in the Crop line of products been accepted?

TS: Crop is our line of functional and health-focused non-alcoholic beverages that contain immunity-boosting parabiotics. The drinks are made from fruit and vegetable waste and loss such as fruit peels, seeds and rinds. People were very supportive of the idea of upcycling fruit peels, “ugly” fruits into new drinks. Prior to the official launch, we gave out samples and gathered feedback from our internal network as well as the public. We made multiple changes following multiple rounds of feedback. In subsequent trial batches we saw marked improvement and general likeability of the products. With the improved recipe and new batch of products, we are confident that the market will be supportive towards this new line.

WT: How do you view the expansion opportunities for the Crust Group beyond Singapore?

TS: We expanded to Japan at the start of 2021. Crust Lager was our first product launched in Japan and it is made from surplus rice and surplus bread from a local bread manufacturer. We aim to scale and expand to different markets, focusing on the Asia markets first, and then to other parts of the world. Crust will continue to produce beverages that are customized to the local taste buds using surplus ingredients from the local market eventually. Crust Group will help different markets reduce their own food loss and food wastage as a Singapore entity by creating products customized to the local market.

WT: What Crust Group product do you recommend for those who want to try their first sample?

TS: The way we built our product range is that there is a beer for everybody. It is hard for me to recommend a single product because everyone looks for something different in a beer. For instance, some prefer beers that are more fruity, some prefer for beers to be hoppier etc. But our Toasted Lager has been one of our more popular products so far.