File photo.
Green coffee company Olam Coffee has announced it is now carrying traceable, single-origin cascara (a.k.a. coffee husk) in multiple forms for various food or beverage applications.
Cascara is the common name, from Spanish, for the pulp and skin surrounding coffee beans that has historically been discarded as waste or composted during the post-harvest production phase.
Although official production or international trading statistics related to cascara are hard to come by, it is widely believed to be a growing food product over the past decade, despite some legal hurdles in the European market.
Over the past 10 years, numerous coffee importing companies have been working with producer groups to collect and process cascara, creating a market that now features single-origin, traceable cascara for use in any number of food or beverage applications.
Olam Coffee, which is technically part of the Olam Food Ingredients group within Olam International, said it is currently sourcing single-estate cascara from plantations in Brazil, Laos, Tanzania and Zambia.
In an announcement this week, Olam said it is now offering dry cascara for tea infusions and flour, liquid cascara concentrates for products such as jams and jellies, and soluble cascara powder for use as an ingredient in beverages and mixes.
With a “food innovation center” in Fresno, California, Olam announced it will “work with companies and brands directly to co-create bespoke cascara products.”
Comment