Polish startup Rebread is on a mission to turn bread waste into valuable raw materials, enabling businesses to upcycle surplus bread into functional ingredients.
Bread waste is becoming more accepted as a sustainable component for beer and snacks, but upcycled ingredients also offer opportunities for the nutraceutical, functional food, and fortified beverage markets.
Founded in 2021 by Bartłomiej Rak and service designer Katarzyna Młynarczyk, Rebread acts as a marketplace cretor and external research and development entity, transforming food waste into high-protein, high-fibre products.
CrumbsUp, Rebread’s flagship powdered ingredient, is made from surplus bread and is particularly suitable for use in functional foods.
As Patrycja Nierada, business development manager at Rebread, explained: “Used as a powdered ingredient, CrumbsUp is low in calories, low in fat, [and] has natural sweetness brought out by the fermentation process, and increased fibre and protein content.”
The ingredient has been successfully tested in bakery applications, where its inclusion at 15% increased fibre content by 40% and protein content by 6%, producing bread with a slightly darker colour and natural sweetness.
Different fungi strains in CrumbsUp allow for a range of flavours, making it versatile for both savoury and sweet applications.
“Some strains offer slightly cheesy and nutty flavours, suitable for both savoury and sweet baked goods, while others have neutral qualities, ideal for traditional bread baking,” said Nierada.
Additionally, the company sees promise in expanding CrumbsUp's use.
Nierada added: “Our ongoing developments aim to increase the incorporation of CrumbsUp in mixes and expand its use in both sweet and savoury applications, depending on the needs of food manufacturers.”
Rebread has also identified potential for CrumbsUp in protein bars, although this area has yet to be fully explored.
Nierada said: “We haven’t yet explored incorporating bread or CrumbsUp into protein bars with our customers. However, given that many protein bars use similar ingredients like fibre, wheat gluten, and rice protein, it's feasible to integrate bread-based ingredients into these products.”
Rebread’s upcycled bread ingredients offer significant potential for fortified foods and beverages.
As detailed in the company’s Crumbling the Barriers report, surplus bread combined with edible fungi such as koji can become a high-protein, high-fibre ingredient, well suited for enhancing the nutritional profile of functional beverages, including smoothies, juices, or sports drinks.
These drinks could provide digestive health benefits and increased protein content, while also delivering a natural umami flavour. This approach fits into the growing trend of fibre-enriched functional beverages designed to offer both health and sustainability benefits.
Rebread’s collaborations extend into other functional food areas, including with Clean Food Group, which uses surplus bread in its proprietary fermentation process to produce sustainable oils and fats. The fermentation process cultivates yeast strains using food waste such as bread – similar to the beer brewing process, but these yeast strains produce oils and fats rather than alcohol.
These sustainable alternatives to traditional oils and fats can be used in food products as well as cosmetics.
Surplus bread also offers opportunities as a protein source in high-protein functional foods, especially in pasta production. Startups in Europe have already explored bread-based pasta, highlighting its nutritional benefits.
In the European market, companies such as Heldenbrot (Germany) and Wasted (Denmark) have experimented with using breadcrumbs as a partial substitute for flour in pasta, although Heldenbrot is no longer active. These projects demonstrate bread’s potential as a protein-rich ingredient.
UK-based startup Atavi, meanwhile, produces premium pasta using fungi strains similar to those used by Rebread, but with a different fermentation process. According to Nierada, this method “enhances the nutritional profile with edible moulds and wheat gluten”, allowing for a combination of the nutritional benefits of both bread and fungi.
“In this way, we can combine the nutritional values from the bread and fungi, which will improve the pasta by adding a deep umami flavour and emphasise the sustainable aspects of the product,” she added.
Rebread’s work in bakery products has also demonstrated the nutritional and functional advantages of using surplus bread as a partial flour substitute.
“Our lab analysis has shown slight increases in fibre (+10%) and protein content (+5%) in the resulting products,” said Nierada.
These benefits make upcycled bread an attractive option for food manufacturers looking to boost the health profile of their bakery items.
Using surplus bread in bakery production not only enhances nutrition but also extends product freshness. Nierada highlighted that “reusing surplus bread extends the shelf life of bakery products, allowing retailers and bakeries an additional 24-36 hours to sell the products, and consumers get up to seven days (for wheat bread) or nine days (for rye bread) to consume the bread”.
This improvement is attributed to the higher water-holding and water-binding capacities of bread flour compared with standard wheat flour, which contribute to a longer-lasting product.
The inclusion of upcycled bread also brings changes in colour and texture, with higher incorporation leading to a darker colour and less crumbly texture due to reduced gluten.
“Bakers can adjust these characteristics using specific enzymes to change the colour, or stronger flour to influence gluten production,” Nierada explained.
