Alvinesa Natural Ingredients is a circular economy business, using biological materials left over from grapes used to make wine to create an extensive range of natural and organic products for a range of food and wellbeing needs.

Each stage of the wine-making process produces leftovers. Firstly, pressing the liquid from the grapes results in unwanted grape skins and seeds (known as pomace or marc). Later in the process, sediment at the bottom of wine fermenting tanks (‘lees’) also tends to become waste. Currently, commercial scale uses for wine pomace often focus on producing alcohol for industrial use, meaning valuable micronutrients and other useful elements are lost.

Separately, the food and beverage sectors often source colours and nutrition ingredients from synthetic ingredients, from animals, or even from agricultural crops that are grown specifically. These options have significant footprints, including materials, carbon, water, waste, and pollution.

Alvinesa sources the highest quality, no- and low- pesticide grape pomace mainly from Spain’s abundant Castilla-La Mancha wine region, transforming it into valuable by-products for the food, beverage, nutrition, cosmetics, animal nutrition and wine-making industries. The portfolio includes a wide selection of polyphenols (micronutrients with antioxidant activity), flavours, colours (anthocyanins), polysaccharides, natural tartaric acid, grapeseed oil and alcohols.

Alvinesa’s ultramodern manufacturing facility in Spain uses circular economy approaches to close the loop on its energy and water needs, too. It generates a high percentage of its energy requirements renewably onsite: 100% of steam energy (by producing its own biomass), and up to 30% of electricity (via solar power). Using only water for extraction, rather than chemical solvents, reduces pollution and helps preserve natural qualities in its products.

Waste from the wine-making process is significantly reduced, and Alvinesa’s processes and expertise enable it to create a wide range of value-adding and nutritious products from the unused grape-based materials. This helps replace synthetic and animal-based ingredients and reduces the need to grow crops – such as the black carrot – specifically for colouring and other enhancers.

Alvinesa controls a sustainable and traceable supply chain that transforms unused organic materials into valuable natural ingredients, avoids waste and promotes healthy living – and helps preserves global food supplies by not using up land just to grow ‘enhancing’ ingredients. Applying thirty years of skills and knowledge and focusing on the highest quality standards enables Alvinesa to transform 100% of the raw materials it sources into a range of value-adding products for global markets, exporting to more than 15 countries.

Visit Alvinesa.com to learn more.