And why manufacturing economics are as important as nutrition 

Beetroot doesn’t have an awareness problem.

Its naturally occurring nitrates and their relationship with nitric oxide have been extensively studied, particularly in relation to exercise performance and vascular health.

As a result, beetroot has become a familiar ingredient across sports nutrition, functional foods, powders, supplements and beverages.

But there is a question the industry asks far less frequently:

How much of the value originally contained in that beetroot survives processing and makes it into the final ingredient?

That may prove to be a much more important question than we think.

At Green Cell Technologies® (GCT®), we have long argued that the biological material itself is only part of the ingredient story.

Same plant. Different outcome.

Plants are extraordinarily sophisticated chemical structures containing proteins, fibres, minerals, pigments and thousands of other naturally occurring compounds.

The challenge is accessing them.

Conventional food processing frequently separates, presses, peels, heats, mills or otherwise processes plant material to create ingredients that manufacturers can conveniently formulate into consumer products.

But every processing decision potentially determines what is retained, what remains inaccessible and what is discarded.

Beetroot provides an unusually clear demonstration of this.

Recently, GCT processed 2,000kg of beetroot through RWH’s (DCD® license holders) Cape Town pilot facility using our patented Dynamic Cellular Disruption® (DCD®) process. The resulting powder and a selection of commercially purchased beetroot powders were subsequently submitted for comparative testing at accredited commercial laboratories, including SGS. 

The results raise an important question for ingredient manufacturers:

Are we measuring the potential of the crop – or the consequences of the processing method?

What the laboratory found:

Compared with the conventionally processed consumer beetroot powders tested, DCD® processed beetroot recorded:

• 410.95% higher natural nitrate content
• 2,570% more dietary fibre
• 226.5% more protein
• 283.94% more natural calcium
• 199.25% more natural potassium
• 146.31% more natural magnesium
• 7,600% more natural iron
• 21.07% more Vitamin C

Available carbohydrates were also 49.7% lower in the DCD® product tested. 

These are not different varieties of beetroot engineered to produce different outcomes.

The fundamental difference is processing.

And that distinction matters.

Processing is part of ingredient performance

Conventionally, beetroot powder is commonly produced in one of two ways.

Beetroot may be pressed into juice and subsequently spray-dried, often using a carrier, creating a residual pomace stream. Alternatively, the beetroot may be air- or freeze-dried and milled.

GCT takes a different approach.

Dynamic Cellular Disruption® is a non-thermal, non-chemical process designed to open more than 99% of cellular structures. In beetroot production, the whole vegetable can be washed, minced, passed through the Disruptor®, dried and subsequently milled into powder. 

That means material traditionally removed or discarded can instead remain part of the finished ingredient.

And therein lies a much bigger industrial opportunity.

From waste reduction to Value Recovery

Sustainability discussions in food manufacturing have historically focused heavily on waste.

How do we dispose of less?

How do we divert by-products from landfill?

How do we find secondary applications for processing residues?

These are important questions.

But perhaps we should ask an earlier one:

Why create the waste stream in the first place?

The beetroot used in GCT’s trial was not premium retail produce. It included so-called “ugly produce” that could otherwise have been rejected because of cosmetic considerations. Yet the biological compounds contained within the cells do not disappear because the vegetable fails a supermarket beauty test. 

This is where GCT’s concept of Value Recovery becomes important.

Value Recovery is not simply about turning waste into something useful after it has been created.

It is about designing processing systems that recover more of the nutritional, functional and commercial value – before that value is lost.

The question changes from: “What can we do with our waste?”

to: “Why are we allowing valuable material to become waste?”

The economics may be as important as the nutrition

There is another consequence.

If more of the desired compounds can be recovered from the same amount of biological material, manufacturers may require less of an ingredient to achieve a targeted formulation.

In GCT’s comparative beetroot analysis, the conventional powder was calculated at an average dosage of approximately 22.5g. Based on the nitrate concentrations measured, approximately 4–5g of DCD® Beetroot Powder could provide an equivalent nitrate quantity.

GCT’s indicative calculation puts ingredient cost at approximately $0.37 per serving for the conventional powder compared with approximately $0.07 for the DCD® product – an estimated reduction of around 81% per serving. 

That changes the discussion from sustainability alone to manufacturing economics.

A smaller functional dose potentially affects formulation space, packaging, logistics, ingredient costs and the commercial possibilities for the finished product.

Beetroot is the case study. Processing is the story.

The significance of these findings therefore extends well beyond beetroot.

Agriculture has spent decades trying to produce more. More tonnes per hectare, more biomass, more yield and so on. But biological resources already contain enormous value.

The industrial biotechnology opportunity is increasingly about recovering more of it, and at GCT, we believe the next significant productivity gain in biological manufacturing may not come from growing more raw material.

It may come from extracting more value from every tonne we already grow.

That is the science of Value Recovery.

Put your own raw material to the test

GCT develops, sells and licenses its patented Disruptor® technology to manufacturers globally.

Rather than asking manufacturers to accept the principle in theory, we prefer to demonstrate it on their own material.

If you manufacture or process fruit, vegetables, botanicals, seaweed, algae, grains, seeds or other biological materials, get in touch to discuss a trial.

GCT can evaluate how the material responds to Dynamic Cellular Disruption® and help identify opportunities for improved extraction, greater whole-material utilisation, waste reduction and Value Recovery.

Your current waste stream may contain considerably more value than you think.

Email us today on: info@greencelltechnologies.com