Food stays food

This project is part of the Ontwerpkracht & Transities programme, funded through PPS-i resources from the Ministry of Economic Affairs via TKI CLICKNL.

Magie Creations

Magie creations transforms spent grain, a by-product of beer brewing, into stable, nutritious ingredients for human consumption. By stabilizing and extracting proteins and fibers, they reduce food waste, save resources like land and water, and lower CO₂ emissions. Their mission is to create a scalable, circular food system that turns industrial by-products into valuable, sustainable ingredients, while inspiring a broader movement across the food chain toward more sustainable and efficient food production.

Can you tell us where the idea for your company originated?

“Actually, it started very pragmatically. I was working as an interim buyer at Schiphol when I was approached by the municipality of The Hague. They had conducted a residual stream analysis on the Binckhorst industrial area, where the brewery Kompaan is located. Their question was whether I could develop a prototype circular business case for spent grain, the by-product of beer brewing.

That was a temporary assignment of a few months. But during that project, I realized how big this topic actually is. In the Netherlands alone, about 560 million kilos of spent grain are produced annually. I thought then that it was artificial to try to solve this only locally. This calls for a scalable solution.”

What made you decide to turn it into a business?

“After that assignment, I couldn’t let it go. I have a background in business administration and art history, so technically I didn’t really know much. But I started reading up on it and came up with a process to stabilize spent grain.

The problem is that it is very wet and spoils quickly. As a result, the food industry cannot just use it. If you stabilize it, it suddenly becomes a valuable ingredient. Together with Wageningen University, we tested the process, and it worked. From that moment, it grew into a startup, now more of a scale-up.”

Why is spent grain so interesting as a food source?

“What many people don’t know is that spent grain is still extremely nutritious. It is about two-thirds of the original malt weight. The sugars are extracted for the beer, but the fibers, proteins, and plant fats remain.

It is therefore healthy, nutritious, and perfectly suitable for human consumption. If we keep this fully in the food chain, we save farmland, freshwater, and CO₂ emissions. Simply put, we produce fewer new raw materials.”

Is it profitable yet?

“No. It’s a long game. I’ve been working on it for nine years, and we are not yet profitable.”

What are the biggest challenges?

“There are several. First, you need breweries that are open to giving their residual stream a different destination. That is risky for them. Spent grain is produced every two hours and must be removed immediately, otherwise production stops. Currently, it is usually collected by animal feed companies. That system works, so why change it?

We also had microbiological challenges to make the ingredient safe and stable. But the biggest challenge lies in the food industry itself. It is extremely traditional. If they replace something, they want a ‘drop-in solution’—something that works identically. Our ingredient is different in taste, color, and functionality. So we really have to educate the market. It’s mission work. Sometimes it feels like running into a concrete wall twenty times.”

What are the advantages for producers of using your ingredient?

“There are four:

1. Better taste

2. Higher nutritional value—more fiber and protein

3. Sustainability benefits

4. Sometimes lower costs

Depending on the product, one or more of these apply.”

Is it already being used?

“Yes. We supply bakeries and also butcheries, mainly for hybrid meat products. But we guide every customer intensively. Sales cycles can last two to three years.”

How do you see the future?
“Ultimately, I absolutely believe in a snowball effect. We are already seeing growth—in revenue, customers, and applications. But the lead time is long.

My goal is to have our own processing facility, where we process 11 million kilos of spent grain annually. Then 20 million, 50 million. But for that, you need an ecosystem that moves with you.”

Where could you use help?

“In telling the story. What we do touches both sustainability and health. We work with our bare hands on the food transition, but it can only succeed if more parties join in.

We really need brand activism. A movement. People and organizations across the entire chain, from brewery to retailer.”

How do you create that movement?

“By reaching people emotionally. Not just explaining rationally, but inspiring. Showing that together we contribute to preventing food waste and making food more sustainable.”

How long will you continue with this?

“I take it year by year. I am my own investor, so I have time. But the condition is that I keep seeing progress. If we really stagnated, it would become critical.”

You sound driven. Where does that come from?

“The journey I’ve been on over the past eight years is actually crazy. The Netherlands wants to be circular by 2050, but reality is stubborn. You almost have to be crazy to dedicate yourself so intensely. Many people cannot afford to earn almost nothing for eight years while working on systemic change. But that complexity is exactly what makes it interesting to me.”

Do you see this in other sectors too?

“Absolutely. Think of residual streams from oat or soy milk, like okara. Industrial food by-products are huge but invisible. We focus on household waste, but the industry is at least as big.”

What needs to change systemically?

“We need to stop thinking in siloed chains. Brewery, bakery, butcher, all separated. In a circular economy, these value chains overlap.

Responsibility also lies with industry and retail, not just consumers. People want a healthy planet, but they cannot possibly trace the origin of every product.”

Finally, what do you hope this project will achieve?

“That it’s no longer my fight, but our fight. The first outlines of that ecosystem are already there. How wonderful would it be if it grows into a broad movement?”