The Food Safety Inspection Service, a subsidiary of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), has approved NutraCea’s stabilized rice bran as an enhancer for food companies that prepare comminuted meat and poultry products; that is, as a binder for poultry sausages, nugget-shaped patties, meatballs, meatloaf, and meat and poultry patties.
NutraCea focuses on processing and distributing stabilized rice bran and other proprietary, rice bran-based ingredients and formulations. Rice bran, including the germ, is the outer layer of the brown rice kernel after the husk has been removed. Until recently, the bran and germ were an under-utilized byproduct of the commercial rice-milling industry, but in the early 1990’s a determined group of innovators developed the technology to process rice bran while maintaining the highest nutritional value.
Separate from but beneficial to the approval is a recent independent study done by Iowa State University and led by Gits Prabhu, Ph.D – one of the industry’s leading meat science authorities – showing that stabilized rice bran added to chicken nuggets and hot dogs provides cost savings, better yield and an improved nutritional profile. Dr. Prabhu said, “We are enthusiastic about the results, which clearly demonstrate significant cost savings, increased yield, a healthier nutritional profile and minimal change in taste when NutraCea’s SRB is added to chicken nuggets and hot dogs.”
The approval will open a new market for NutraCea because, according to Kody Newland, Senior Vice President of Sales at NutraCea: “In 2007, consumers spent more than $4.1 billion on hot dogs and sausages in U.S. supermarkets — that equals more than 1.5 billion pounds of hot dogs and sausages bought at retail stores alone.”
Brad Edson, NutraCea’s President and Chief Executive Officer also said, “The USDA approval presents an important opportunity for NutraCea to begin to supply hundreds of new customers in the meat industry with stabilized rice bran. It should be a welcome event for meat industry customers, who will be able to capture cost savings and improve product yields.”
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