Over & Oat – turning oat drink residues into new food and materials
Over & Oat is focused on investigating how residues from oat drink production (okara) can be transformed into valuable new food products. The research project is expected to contribute to a more sustainable food system by reducing food waste during oat drink production and by increasing the resource efficiency.
In Over & Oat, Sweden’s leading producers of oat-based beverages are collaborating with researchers and experts on practical and innovative solutions to recover and valorise the residual product oat okara, which is rich in both dietary fibre and protein. The project consists of industry-wide transformation efforts focused on process technologies, circular business models and product development.
Marie Palmnäs from Circular Economy, Chalmers Industriteknik, leads a work package focused on business modelling of the value chain, tasks where Linnéa Lindkvist, Chalmers Industriteknik plays a central role. The work package aims to analyse the current value chain and identify and analyse new possible value streams, business opportunities and risks, as well as how different parties could be affected by the transformation. This will contribute with new knowledge and support in the implementation of circular business models to better take make use of oat okara.
The extent of residual flows from oat drink production is considerable – for every kg of oat drink produced, about 0.2 kg of okara is generated.. The problem is also growing rapidly with the increased production of oat-based drinks and alternatives to dairy products. The ambition is furthermore that the project’s results, methods and skills can be applied to other plant-based residual products since many issues and system-level challenges are common to the industry.
Here you can find information about the project on the Axfoundation website and the RE:Source website.
Project partners and financiers
Over & Oat is a collaboration between Axfoundation, Oatly, The Green Dairy, Chalmers Industriteknik, KTH, Lund University, Elajo Technology Solutions, Kronholm Development AB, Martin & Servera – Sorunda Hallarna, Alfa Laval and Axfood. The project is financed by the Swedish Energy Agency, Vinnova and Formas through the strategic innovation programme RE:Source through the call “Circular economy and resource use within the s the planets boundaries”. The project started in September 2023 and runs until spring 2026.
