Fancy a pork pie made from bread crusts? Scientists show how wasted dough can be fermented to be used in new dishes
Fancy a pork pie made from bread crusts? Scientists show how wasted dough can be fermented to be used in new dishes
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Eating your crusts is said to be good for you. But if you are one of those people who prefer to leave them at the side of the plate, all is not lost. Researchers have shown that leftover crusts can be fermented to make a lab-based protein to be used in the likes of pork pies and sausages.
![[Scientists have shown that leftover crusts can be fermented to make a protein that can be used in other foods, such as pork pies (file photo)]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/10/22/93977655-14272521-image-a-2_1736546809964.jpg)
The development could help reduce the extraordinary amount of waste that comes from bakeries around the world. Currently, around 10 per cent of the 185million tons of baked bread each year is wasted, mostly at supermarkets and commercial bakers. While most of this surplus is safe to eat, with some of it distributed by charities, it cannot be sold more generally.
Now, scientists at Aberystwyth University have shown that fermenting surplus bread with juice from pressed grass – which is full of nutrients - can create alternative proteins. These proteins could eventually end up on the plates of millions of people, they said, including in fortified bread, pork pies or sausages.
Around 10 per cent of the 185million tons of baked bread each year is wasted, mostly at supermarkets and commercial bakers (file photo). Dr David Bryant, one of the study’s authors, said: ‘This is a real breakthrough that will hopefully tackle the growing global problem of wasted food.
‘Most of us know only too well how much of a problem bread waste is - from the toast thrown away at breakfast or our uneaten sandwiches. ‘But that is not the whole issue – much is wasted commercially in manufacture and retail as well. ‘This research gives us a way of tackling that problem through fermentation. It is the use of grass that makes these findings a genuine first.
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