OAKLAND, CA – January 19, 2021 – Oakland-based startup Renewal Mill – a mission-driven brand leading the upcycled food movement – has released a new look ahead of the Specialty Food Live! Show this week. It has a bold claim for its sustainably-minded consumers: Upcycled food fights climate change. The company says its new packaging designs are inspired by global weather pattern maps (like heat maps, pressure charts, and tide depth maps) and are meant to more clearly connect food waste reduction and climate change prevention for consumers. According to Paul Hawken’s Project Drawdown, reducing food waste is the number one thing we can do to stop at two degrees of global warming. Upcycled food empowers the everyday shopper to reimagine food waste.
This move comes as ‘Upcycled Food’ continues to top 2021 food trend lists including those released by Kroger, the Food Network, and Whole Foods, who specifically highlighted Renewal Mill.
The new branding also represents the company’s official debut of three new SKUs: an Upcycled Sugar Cookie Mix, an Upcycled Oat Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix, and an Upcycled High-Protein Oat Milk Flour. All three products are vegan, gluten-free, and non-GMO and round out the company’s other retail offerings which include Organic Okara Flour, 1-to-1 Gluten-Free Baking Flour, and its best seller, Upcycled Dark Chocolate Brownie Mix.
As COO Caroline Cotto explained, “Renewal Mill’s previous tagline, ‘Ingredients with a Story’ served the purpose of intrigue, and getting people to ‘double click.’ But, it was too passive for the current state of the environment. ‘Fight Climate Change From Your Kitchen’ inspires all of us to take an active part in shaping the story of our food system and in writing a new one. It’s a hopeful, but intentional message. Together we can affect change while, of course, enjoying delicious food.”
Since aiding its founding in Fall 2019, Renewal Mill continues to spearhead the Upcycled Food Association (UFA), a burgeoning trade organization which has just adopted the world’s first “Upcycled Certification Standard.” This program will allow products similar to Renewal Mill’s to be “Certified Upcycled” as soon as this spring, further centralizing the messaging on the topic and educating consumers.
Learn more at www.renewalmill.com, or check out the new packaging yourself via hundreds of retailers including Thrive Market, Good Eggs, Zero Grocery, Whole Foods (NorCal), and more!
About Renewal Mill
Renewal Mill is an award-winning, next-generation ingredient company that fights climate change and global food loss by upcycling byproducts from food manufacturing into premium ingredients and products. We’re building a new circular economy of food that’s better for the people and the planet we love. Our flagship ingredient is organic okara, a high fiber, high protein, gluten-free flour made from the nutritious soybean pulp leftover when you make soymilk. We use the okara in a number of plant-based products including a vegan, soft-baked chocolate chip cookie, a 1-to-1 gluten-free baking flour, and a line of vegan “just add oil and water” baking mixes. We can be found in 150+ markets in California, online platforms like Thrive Market, Good Eggs, and Zero Grocery, and at www.renewalmill.com. The company is led by two go-getter women: Caroline Cotto currently serves as Board President of the Upcycled Food Association and Claire Schlemme was named a 2020 Tory Burch Fellow. To learn more about Renewal Mill, visit www.renewalmill.com, ‘like’ us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.