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Jasmine Byrne | Big Mountain Foods
51 Plays1 month ago
In this episode of Aisle 42, we chat with Jasmine, co-founder of Big Mountain Foods, about the brand's journey, family culture, and mission to make allergen-free, plant-based foods that are healthy and delicious.
Jasmine talks about shifting from mental health work to building the brand with her mom, as well as the challenge of getting kids to love healthy food.
We also dive into their product lineup, how they're growing in Canada and the US, and the tricky reality of profitability in food manufacturing. AND Jasmine shares how they're reusing byproducts like Okara and working towards a circular economy.
Learn more at https://bigmountainfoods.com/.
Want help scaling your food or beverage brand? Learn more at https://www.ethicalfoodgroup.com/.
Here's a summary of this interview:
Jasmine’s vision for the future of food: Healthy eating should be the norm, starting from childhood, rather than an exception.
The unique family dynamic at Big Mountain Foods, working alongside her mom who’s a talented chef.
The challenges of scaling a plant-based food brand, including supply chain pressures and mental health burnout.
How the brand evolved from a tiny cafe veggie patty to today’s wide lineup, including innovative products like fava bean tofu.
Insight into the allergen-friendly market and the shift from “what’s not in it” to “what’s in it” storytelling for consumers.
The hurdles and opportunities of entering the US market, including faster adoption of regenerative and organic claims compared to Canada.
Jasmine’s take on profitability in CPG—acknowledging that until you reach $20M in sales, profitability remains a steep climb.
How the brand’s nimbleness and collaborative network led to a lightning-fast launch of their new roast product at Costco.
Sustainability initiatives: upcycling tofu byproducts like Okara back into their products, and exploring uses in other industries like biofuel.
Jasmine’s optimism for building a circular economy and using every part of the process to reduce waste and create new opportunities.
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Transcript
Episode Introduction with Jasmine from Big Mountain Foods
00:00:00
Speaker
This is Aisle 42.
00:00:07
Speaker
In this episode of Aisle 42, we chat with Jasmine, co-founder of Big Mountain Foods, ah about the brand's journey, family culture, and mission to make allergen-free plant-based foods that are healthy and delicious.
From Mental Health to Food Innovation: Jasmine's Journey
00:00:19
Speaker
Jasmine talks about shifting from mental health work to building the brand with her mom, as well as the challenge of getting kids to love healthy food. We also dive into their product lineup, how they're growing in Canada and the US, and the tricky reality of profitability in food manufacturing.
Big Mountain Foods' Product Expansion and Manufacturing Challenges
00:00:35
Speaker
And Jasmine shares how they're reusing byproducts like okra and working towards a circular economy. I love this stuff. All right, let's jump into it. Here's Jasmine from Big Mountain Foods, because the future of food starts now.
00:00:51
Speaker
Jasmine, due to your schedule and mine, or even hydro transformers exploding into flames outside your facility, you and I have rescheduled this conversation a few times.
00:01:02
Speaker
So never have I meant this more than today. i have been looking forward to this for a long time. I'm so glad we're doing this. So to kick things off with the big question here, Jasmine, what's the one change in the food system that would excite you the most?
Sustainable Practices: Reusing Byproducts and Circular Economy
00:01:17
Speaker
Okay, well first Corwin, I'm glad that we're finally meeting. i forgot that I sent you that video of the Transformers literally on fire. The beauties of owning your own facility, I tell you. It's a new challenge every day.
00:01:31
Speaker
But ah besides that, what does it mean to me looking into the future ah but like in food right now, what's important to Big Mountain is we're really evolving into a company that is advocating for regenerative and organic.
00:01:50
Speaker
As a mom, newer mom, or my son's five years old, so he's just getting exposed to the McDonald's and the Sour Patch Kids of the world. We're finding that It's not the norm to be the mom or dad grocery shopping right now that's buying the better for you products.
00:02:11
Speaker
I find that we're still in this generation where it's cooler to be the mom that shows up with the Sour Patch Kids. And how I see the world going forward and would what what would be amazing to us is just seeing a world where healthy food habits start at birth and you know these poor children aren't exposed to all of this because it's so hard to break the habits once your taste buds and everything have tried all of this junk. And so how do we get to a place where everyone's eating more healthy and isn't exposed to all of this?
00:02:52
Speaker
Because really it's a systematic issue right now. And and how are we going to go forward and help change? Yeah. So healthy is cool. That would be Yeah. Yeah. Like if if healthy was cool, that's that's how I'd summarize that. I agree with you. I think our daughter's 11. So we're sort of, you know, yeah, the sour, yeah, funny that you brought up Sour Patch Kids because, um well, being in the food industry, we're surrounded by all these wonderful candy companies that are trying to be cool and different and trying to be you know, better for you.
00:03:23
Speaker
You know, my daughter's game to try pretty much almost anything I bring her. When we come home from trade shows, she just goes through all my bags. She's pulling stuff out. The candy is certainly at the top of the list, but helping her understand, you know,
00:03:37
Speaker
why something is healthy, how we would expect her, you know, her body to respond to something she's consuming. And then of course she adds on layers of her own bias and, you know, well, Mr. Beast made this. I'm like, yeah, yes, you're right. He did put his logo on that. But anyway, yeah, no, that's, that's, that's well said. I appreciate that.
Family Dynamics in Business: Working with Her Mother
00:03:59
Speaker
So I have to call the moment here, you know, you work with your mom, right? Yes, I do. Not a lot of people do that. ah What's it like to lead a plant-based food company with family?
00:04:10
Speaker
how do I'm really curious how that plays into the culture of your company, especially with the mom who's such a brazen carnivore.
00:04:20
Speaker
Well, I've been full-time with the company now, i guess it's 12 years. So interesting enough, I was on a different career path. I really wanted to focus on mental health. And as we see what's going on right now in BC, we have a ginormous mental health crisis.
00:04:37
Speaker
And so I was going down the path of getting into the mental health unit and doing my degree in psychology and all this. And my mom just looked at me and said, you know,
00:04:49
Speaker
You can go down this road, but you're looking at serious burnout. And how long are you going to be able to sustain a career like that? Instead, why don't you work with me and give it a shot and we'll become so powerful and big that we'll be able to help all these people in our own way.
00:05:09
Speaker
So big ambitions, because you know what? Burnout and food is a real thing, too. We're hearing it more and more. Back then, ah that wasn't even a topic on burnout of entrepreneurs and everything just even 10 years ago.
00:05:24
Speaker
I think it's amazing. Everyone's talking about it now. But so we embarked on this journey together.
Origins of Big Mountain Foods: Allergen-Free Innovation
00:05:30
Speaker
And at that time, there was nothing in the plant-based space that was allergen free.
00:05:37
Speaker
And i have celiac disease. My sister is lactose intolerant. My sister-in-law and my husband and you know half of our family doesn't eat meat.
00:05:48
Speaker
So it was very challenging to have a plant-based meal for everyone at the dinner table that didn't have allergies. And my mom five-star cook.
00:05:59
Speaker
like phenomenal um chef. So she's really into like the Indian and Indo-Pacific cuisine that she grew up in that culture. Yeah. So fast forward, I think the reason why we work so well together is because we both know our boundaries ah and limits as professionals.
00:06:22
Speaker
and then we just bounce off of each other on who tackles what. I would say our biggest flaw though is we definitely don't spend enough time together working on, you know, the strategic side of the business and the future.
00:06:38
Speaker
Right now we're in high growth mode. And so it's a lot of fast pace, putting out fires, big highs and lows every day. One day I swear we'll write a book. It's insane.
00:06:49
Speaker
The highs and lows that we, we go through, but how we make it work is, You know, when we're traveling, we always try to do one extra day so we can sightsee because we're on a plane like every three weeks.
00:07:03
Speaker
So then we get some time together and bond. We actually even live next door to each other, which is wild. We share fences. So we're really embarked on this journey together. i don't think there's any other way at this point. We're like one person as of now.
00:07:24
Speaker
That's unreal. And maybe your, your staff will start buying houses around you guys and it'll just be one big, you just have compound. Yeah. That's the one thing with Canada though, that I just, I, if I could say one more thing about the future is people and businesses really need to start collaborating more.
00:07:43
Speaker
It's remarkable how much when you start to share resources, and open up and you know become collaborative, how much more you can um save on costing and all that good stuff.
00:07:57
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. I was talking with a brand on the weekend that their biggest, the big bad competitor in their category is actually have become friends of theirs and are helping this small brand and that type of thing. And i know you guys have seen, you know, that as well in your space. It's pretty remarkable when ah collaboration can kind of lead and drive a category forward. So it's really special.
00:08:23
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. You know, you you mentioned allergies. Let's talk about that for a moment because when I first was exposed to your brand, to me, it felt like, oh, this is the allergy. Like this was the allergy category. This is the, for people who can't eat all that stuff that here's what they get to have.
00:08:41
Speaker
But as I consumed more of your product and especially as you guys have innovative, innovated, it's been interesting to see how the, at least in my home, I'll be very candid in our home,
00:08:53
Speaker
We don't look at your products anymore as the allergen free option. It kind of leans into some of the yeah other areas that we're looking for. We're looking for flavor and texture. and and and And now I even brag about it when I put one of those those links that you got. is it called a Fiesta link? i was yeah I'm sorry. I buy them. I don't remember the name of the Fiesta links.
00:09:14
Speaker
We tried it it for the first time about a year ago, and now it's a staple in our home. I'll feed it to anybody. I don't, I don't explain it. I don't tell people what's in it or not in it. I just, I know them. I know who's in my home and what they can't, cannot have.
00:09:26
Speaker
I serve it proudly. And, and they always ask because they're like, this is delicious. And then I get to tell them a plant-based story. I get to tell them an allergen free story and it just, it amplifies it. But yeah,
00:09:38
Speaker
Allergen free eating is getting really complicated in the grocery store. And I think that some can shoppers are just almost paralyzed.
00:09:49
Speaker
So when you look at that space, you know, do you do you see hope for the allergen concerned shopper or you worried about them as well? You know what? And I'm one of them.
00:10:01
Speaker
I'm actually right now taking a step back just from the gluten-free category for myself. So I was one of the first people that would jump on board on all the gluten-free breads and crackers and snacks and and same with the plant-based milks and whatnot.
00:10:18
Speaker
And then I realized that, you know, I was feeling bloated and gut issues and everything. And and now I'm just really focusing on... companies that are very, it's clean label, less ingredients. Like Jovial Pasta is a great example. I wish that they could get more distribution in Canada. They're just phenomenal.
00:10:40
Speaker
And their gluten-free is two ingredients, slow processing of the the grains and processed in Italy. So you're getting that trust back and that nostalgia of eating really good quality Italian wheat.
00:10:57
Speaker
So I think the customer is shifting to that and that's going to be the way that, you know, the future should be anyway. We jumped right in. did We had to give listeners a chance here. Would you mind sharing with listeners what it is that you guys make? Like what are some of the top SKUs and products that you guys have in grocery stores that they maybe have seen ah before or consume themselves?
00:11:22
Speaker
Sure. So we started out with our original veggie patty. So that one came on the market, gosh, like 38 years ago. And my mom, Kim, she had a vegan cafe in Kitsilano and was serving that veggie patty the same time around like Eve's cuisine was coming out and whatnot.
00:11:43
Speaker
And um the Safeway buyer actually came into her restaurant and saw her working so hard, three young kids, and told her, why don't you make something with a shelf life and that is in a package?
00:11:57
Speaker
And so she, you know, did some research, went to him, went to the retailer and put it on the shelves in the deli, just in like a sandwich bag or a bread bag.
00:12:08
Speaker
And it had like a three day shelf life. And that's kind of where her journey began. So from there, you know, 38 years later, we've introduced products like cauli crumble and lion's mane crumble. So those would be your your meat replacements for ground chicken or ground beef.
00:12:26
Speaker
But we're using, you know, cauliflower and lion's mane mushrooms, shiitake, all those good, that good stuff. And then most recently, we commissioned the first ever soy-free tofu factory in the world using Canadian fava beans, which are remarkable, by the way.
00:12:45
Speaker
Our beans are glyphosate-free, no spraying. And what's exciting is we're actually... planting the first ever organic favocrop right now, actually, this spring that's ever been done and in Canadian history. So very proud that we're pioneering that.
00:13:05
Speaker
And so with that tofu, now we're, you know, getting traction in the US and Canada. That's really what we're trying to focus on is this tofu alternative, but it tastes, functions, and performs just like tofu.
00:13:18
Speaker
with no fat and it's actually a bit higher protein than traditional tofu. So we're sold at a premium and that definitely took some convincing at first with, you know, the lovely salespeople that want you to be price aligned with the very, very cheap tofu that sells for $1.99.
00:13:38
Speaker
But what we've proven over the past couple years is consumers are, purchasing our tofu, but we're not stealing the business from soy tofu.
00:13:48
Speaker
We're bringing in new customers into the tofu market, especially men, which is quite interesting to see. we We have no politics against soy at all, but there is, you know, certain buzz around hormones and whatnot. And so we're bringing in this whole new shopper.
00:14:07
Speaker
And that's what we're showing the retailer and they're loving it. And the velocities are crazy on it. So very excited for the tofu. We envision in the next couple years, we'll have little plants all over the world, little mini tofu plants.
00:14:23
Speaker
That's the goal. Be first to market in Asia and and Australia and Europe. If someone doesn't beat us to it. That's fantastic. I love it.
00:14:34
Speaker
Yeah, your fava bean based tofu is, I agree, it does perform exactly like what I want it to to do. I've marinated it, I've grilled it, I've chopped it up and put it in stir fry. I've done a lot of things with it. Haven't made a smoothie out of it.
00:14:50
Speaker
so i probably That might be a bit firm. Yeah, it might be a little bit hard on my my Vitamix. But yeah it it's interesting, you know, and and I know for the most part, as of right now, it's sort of a soy-free kind of play.
00:15:06
Speaker
But yet, you know, now consumers are so interested in what is in it instead of what isn't in it. And leaning into that story around fava bean and Canadian farmed, ah you know, pulse grains and just ah being able to tell that story of regenerative and now organic farming is, it's a beautiful thing, isn't it? It's, it's, ah do you find that the retailers are responding quite quickly and and excitedly to this narrative? Because must be hard to communicate this stuff on top of everything else, plus price and plus everything else.
00:15:41
Speaker
Yes. Well, it's very interesting, the US versus Canada. So as soon as Regenitiv started to come out, I guess a year ago, within a few months of Expo West, I say like 25% of the brands had already changed their packaging in the US and were on shelves. And I'm like, how is this even possible that all these companies were just already Regenitiv? It's like,
00:16:06
Speaker
Mind-blowing. That's the same thing with organic in the US. s You wonder how so many companies at Trader Joe's are organic. Canada is still very much catching up to it. I don't think many people know about regenerative yet, so it'll it'll be a slower process for sure.
00:16:22
Speaker
But with the tariffs and everything, we definitely now are getting a little bit more attention that we're using Canadian grown ingredients. But I will say it it took Canada a lot longer to list our Canadian, 100% Canadian grown and manufactured tofu than the US. s They were actually about over a year and a half to two years behind some of the big retailers here.
00:16:50
Speaker
That is shocking. It is. So what you're saying is that the US market was hotter and more excited for what you guys are doing than your own backyard.
00:17:01
Speaker
Yes. Yeah, that that would be so tricky. I mean, it's it's always nice selling into a country that has a strong dollar against the Canadian dollar. Yes. And that there's so many more customers down there.
00:17:13
Speaker
But yet, it's away from what you know, it's away from your closest relationships, to your partnerships, your collaborators. ah So what's it been like growing the brand in the US?
Navigating the US Market: Challenges and Investments
00:17:25
Speaker
You know what, it's with anything, you got to have patience. We've, you know, restructured our sales team and our strategy many, many times. We've been at it about seven years now.
00:17:39
Speaker
i would say we're starting to gain some really good traction. We're in stores like Publix, Sprouts, fingers crossed. We had, we've been on a test run at Whole Foods just in the PAC Northwest.
00:17:54
Speaker
We're hoping they're gonna give us a national distribution. i mean, we're selling like 26 units a week and the category's average is three. So we're hoping that happens soon. That's another one that we've been nurturing and um babying for multiple years, still not in Whole Foods National. You'd think that would be the first for the tofu, but overall they're very receptive. Of course, the exchange is amazing.
00:18:22
Speaker
And, you know, there's just so much opportunity there. And we've we've invested so much money as well. So to have to take a step back if any tariffs come into effect would be very devastating.
00:18:34
Speaker
Takes a long time to grow in any market. Yeah, it sure does. Especially for the consumers that, you know, the vegans and non-vegans alike, when they're exploring a new category, like you said, it you're sort of, you're introducing new consumers to a category that's probably had gone stale in people's minds or wasn't on their radar.
00:18:55
Speaker
It means that there's this duality of education and marketing, which rarely go hand in hand simultaneously. So it means that from, you know, retailer all the way to consumer, you have a lot of challenges right in front of you. But the the product performs well and people and, you know, and I know a lot of shoppers now are shopping with their Yucca apps, right? And they're, they're, they're looking up stuff online. They're hitting QR codes. There's a more and more shoppers are looking at labels and nutritional panels, taking these things seriously, especially when, if they're going to pay a premium,
00:19:33
Speaker
They're going to make sure that it's going to do what they want to do. So what's been the consumer feedback down in the U.S.? s Do you feel like the the response is similar, just a different country, or is there even a different ah consumer sentiment down there?
00:19:49
Speaker
Well, the biggest feedback we get is they want it in more stores. and they can't find it. That seems like the biggest frustration in the U S especially cause we're on social media and whatnot. And they're like, I can't find it in my area. And they get all upset about that.
00:20:07
Speaker
But overall I would say it's, it's the same, but in terms of like health and wellness, definitely ah ahead, but it's interesting that inflation though in Canada,
00:20:20
Speaker
for sure was a ahead of the US. s Now we're starting to see the US catch up a little bit and everything get a bit tighter. Yeah, the math is changing a little bit and obviously tariffs amplify it.
00:20:34
Speaker
But with inflation growing, yeah, everyone's sort of looking at the numbers a little differently for sure. Yes. You know, you talked about highs and lows of growing the business.
00:20:46
Speaker
When it comes to scaling a brand like yours, what has been like, what's been one or two of the big challenges that you guys have tackled over the last couple years coming out of, you know, pandemic era?
00:20:58
Speaker
Well, I can say something that's maybe current that's happening this week because it's changing so much. That's very CPG of you, by the way. it's like, I don't know about the last two years, but I can tell you what's happening right now.
00:21:11
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. i had a very interesting, and i share this because i want others to not feel like they're alone. But I had a ah meeting with a very well-known CFO that's been, you know, worked for all the big brands in the U.S.,
00:21:28
Speaker
scaled many huge corporations. And he was saying, we were frustrated on, we're in we're in a fairly big plant. We're a bit over our heads. We need more cases. That's it. More volume out of the plant.
00:21:39
Speaker
Overhead's a bit too high here until we start pumping out bigger volumes. We knew that moving in. But um he was telling me that, you know, in his history, until you get to 20 million in sales, you're never going to be profitable.
00:21:57
Speaker
And i'm I'm looking at the conversation and say thinking to myself, well, if you don't have any investors, it's going to take nowadays maybe five to eight years to become a $20 million dollars company without mass injections of funds.
00:22:18
Speaker
Who's going going to fund all that? And how are you going to sustain that? And so what worries me right now is with all the shifts in grocery and manufacturing is it seems like it's going back to the only the big guys are going to make it unless those investors are still investing in the small guys, which was happening a couple of years ago. There was so much money flying around. It was insane.
00:22:43
Speaker
And now everyone's dialing back on that. so When you hear that, it's hard to keep going because $20 million dollars is a ginormous number when you're making 25 cents off each unit.
00:23:01
Speaker
So that was interesting. and And another one, we're starting to get into seasonal items, which is new to us. you know Another word of advice I hear is that seasonal items are never profitable.
00:23:13
Speaker
They're just a marketing ah play to get your brand out there more. and so We were presented a P&L on the new roast we're launching, and we were going to be in a loss of $15,000 every time we did the seasonal listing in the U.S. s at one of these grocery stores.
00:23:32
Speaker
And we're just like, you know, at at some point we all have to stop this game and focus on profitability. And we just went in with what,
00:23:46
Speaker
we knew confidently that we would make a little bit of money on and didn't go for the, you know, $20,000 loss every single season indefinitely hoping that they might bring in other products all year round.
00:24:01
Speaker
So it's very interesting what's going on in the CPG game right now and bringing awareness to it. It's wild ride. Yeah, I, you know, it's probably not the most popular thing to say, but, and you mentioned collaboration earlier.
00:24:16
Speaker
Sometimes when I look at some of these categories where there's, you know, better for you, good for you, alternatives being made, you kind of want to look at like five of them. Like, why don't you guys get together and do it?
00:24:27
Speaker
Combine all your manufacturing, combine all your investment, combine all your supply chains and all your partnerships and do it together. Because right now you're all fighting for, you know, a small but growing niche that Or especially if you don't have a lot of awareness and there's not going to be that same consumer drive. So it's like where, you know, there's almost just too much options, too many alternatives and everyone's doing the same good thing, just slightly different. And it's, it's ah you're right. You know, scaling requires,
00:24:58
Speaker
you know, good margins at high volumes and small companies can't, can't do that very well. Uh, listen, you mentioned your roast and I want to say that that launch I was, it was through Costco that I um tried it.
00:25:10
Speaker
Um, I'm not sure if it's in other, haven't seen it around other places. i haven't looked very hard for it because I was buying it at Costco. Um, Roast to see it that it looked like it launched really well, like people were getting kind of crazy for it, which is fantastic. And ah having a product that is seasonal, that's centered around, like literally family gatherings.
00:25:33
Speaker
That must have been a really great moment for you guys to see how well that was, you know, ah the uptake of that product. Well, execution was an interesting one. So we went to Costco for our first ever live presentation in their kitchen cooking in the West here.
00:25:49
Speaker
and Kim, of course, she's like avid seller as well as the chef. So she just had the roast, you know, in her back pocket, didn't really tell her broker that she was going to put it in the oven and and cook it for them. Cause you know, everyone wants to be perfectly repaed and prepared, prepared.
00:26:07
Speaker
Um, but she's kind of on the whim type person. And so she baked it and cut it up for the three Costco people and they loved it. And were they were like, well, why don't we try it?
00:26:20
Speaker
But it has to be ready in two weeks. And so we launched in the West, the East, never done business with Costco within ah couple of weeks. So.
00:26:31
Speaker
you're You're talking like from R&D to being on the shelf. Yeah, yeah. So we are very thankful to have such a good network in Vancouver. my gosh, like Glenmore and Boxmaster and Cultivated Foods. I'll give them all shout outs because they worked so but they worked around the clock to make it happen with us. Because at that same time, Kim and I had like three shows. We're traveling. We couldn't even be in the plant.
00:27:00
Speaker
We proudly didn't have any delays, got it on shelf. And then what happened is other retailers started seeing it on my LinkedIn that it launched in Costco and were like, what the, because we hadn't, we hadn't even given it to anyone. It was supposed to, we were still in concept phase for Thanksgiving 2025 coming up So then we then we don't say no to anything.
00:27:23
Speaker
We're nimble enough here. So we got it in horizon and John Luca, PSC, save on foods directly all so fast. Uh, because you know what the category wanted it and we knew that there hadn't been any, you know, new innovation and and what's out there too, is again, as allergens.
00:27:42
Speaker
Tofurky. Yep. So we didn't, we didn't, um, We didn't expect to get that much traction that fast, but again, it's pretty crazy how retailers can turn things on if they like something.
00:28:00
Speaker
Sometimes they'll delay things for a year or two, but then if they like something, it's like, oh, ready in a week.
00:28:07
Speaker
You know, and that's got to be that speed to market there that's got to be one of the things that the large food companies must look at businesses like yours and go cool. Like, that's awesome.
00:28:19
Speaker
And so many of these large companies like that would be two years out for a lot of brands and your guys like one a week, two weeks. All right, let's do it. Let's go, you know, call in some favors and make it happen. That's so cool.
00:28:33
Speaker
ah My last question for you is around sustainability. You know, I know your manufacturing process includes sustainability initiatives like zero waste
Zero Waste Initiatives and Innovative Byproduct Use
00:28:41
Speaker
goals. um And, you know, that's always a hard thing to do, but I know you guys lean into some of these places and spaces so well.
00:28:47
Speaker
ah What does it look like on a day to day basis for the Big Mountain Foods team? Like, what are you guys looking to do from a sustainability standpoint to really drive some of these values forward? So right now we have a lot of Okara, which is traditionally a byproduct of tofu making.
00:29:06
Speaker
there's i was just reading an article. I think there's like 800 billion tons of it or something just in Japan that researchers all around the world are looking at how...
00:29:18
Speaker
what can be done with this Okara and that could be like going back into biofuel or energy it's pretty cool all the things that are coming up but then how do you scale that so for the past since we moved into this plant the past five years we've been deciding and trying to figure out the best options for this Okara which is essentially fava starch And so then you'd be competing against, you know, your cornstarch, your arrowroot starch, tapioca fiber, that sort of thing, which can be a bit cheaper in price.
00:29:51
Speaker
And when you put in all the equipment costs, like $2 million dollars to dry it, make it into this functional ingredient, is there a business case for it? And that's the same thing that happens with tofu makers, you know, the oat milks, the beer spent grains.
00:30:07
Speaker
We're all in the same, we all have the same problem. But as of now, before we embark on this drying journey, we actually upcycle this Okara fresh back into our products as a functional starch because there is value in it.
00:30:26
Speaker
There's still protein and starch and fiber. So that's how we're cutting down our waste here because otherwise there would be, we have 10 tons a day of Okara. That's amazing. So you're putting it right back into the product. Yeah.
00:30:42
Speaker
Yeah. And then we have um a whey byproduct that the same thing happened in the cheese industry many, many years ago. And then they started making the whey protein out of it. And that was actually a byproduct.
00:30:54
Speaker
we're capturing our way and refiltering it and putting it back into our tofu making to save some water. Because again, tofu making takes a lot of water.
00:31:06
Speaker
So we're repurposing that instead of letting it go down the drain, but long-term, We're looking at the Okara, not just from a food perspective, but what else can it be used for? Is it, you know, um concrete form release agents or biofuel, like a different industry altogether and what we can do to create more of a circular economy. So lots of research going on behind the scenes. That's pretty nerdy, by the way.
00:31:33
Speaker
Like we're going to make fava bean tofu and we're going to make stuff for concrete. Okay. Put that on the P&L. Yeah. That's amazing. Jasmine, thank you so much for this conversation.
00:31:47
Speaker
i'm so impressed with all that you and your mom and your team do. And i love that we get to work a little bit together as well. And ah you know, ultimately you guys make beautiful products that are really fun to eat.
00:31:58
Speaker
And that most importantly in my world, my daughter enjoys. So I'm grateful for that. So thanks again. Amazing. Thank you so much, Corwin.
00:32:09
Speaker
Thanks for listening to this episode of aisle 42. Be sure to grab a big mountain product the next time you're in the grocery store and follow them on social. Okay. That's it for me. I'm Corwin Hebert from ethical food group, and I'll see in the future.