How One Company Used an Enzyme to Turn Food Waste Into a Superfood

One of the most plentiful waste products in the world was also most difficult to recover.

Indian laborers plant rice paddy saplings at a field in Vaiyavur village near Chennai on April 20, 2016. Waste from the milling of white rice is the latest superfood to hit the U.S. market. ARUN SANKAR/AFP/Getty Images

For nearly a century, bran as a food ingredient has been solely within the purview of boring, high-fiber breakfast cereals like whole wheat bran flakes, all-bran, and oat bran. One company is challenging the food industry to rethink what bran can do for the human race. 

Bran is the brown outer layer found on all cereal grains. It is the “whole” part of the whole grain. Until recently the food industry has focused on wheat bran and oat bran, and raisin bran is about as exciting as the formulations got. 

If you haven't heard of rice bran, this is likely because only 1 percent of the available rice bran in the world is currently utilized for the human food market.