PectCof | State of the art bio-refinery solution for waste

Since 2020 PectCof has been an active user of Open Kitchen Labs and their insights and experience have contributed to the development of our services.

PectCof's ambition to (partially) solve the waste problem and scarcity of functional food ingredients perfectly resonates with Open Kitchen Labs' goals- Sustainable use of laboratory infrastructure to solve today's problems.

In the interview with PectCof’s Director and Co-Founder Rudi Dieleman, you will learn about the vision and mission of PectCof and how they experience working in a shared lab facility.

About PectCof

The vision of PectCof is to become the first bio-refinery solution for coffee cherry pulp. We are solving a two-sided problem.

On the biomass side we (partially) solve the problem of coffee cherry pulp that is left to rot and/or land-filled by converting this stream into biomass and thereby also a stream of value to the farmers. On the product side we (partially) solve the problem of scarcity of functional food ingredients for the food ingredient companies that are clean label and sustainably produced.

PectCof’s plans for the coming year.

PectCof's plan for 2023 is to upscale production from tens of kilograms of product to more than hundreds of kilograms of product per production batch. In parallel, we are transforming the batch process into a semi-continuous process. On the product side, we are developing a multitude of applications ranging from confectionery, ice cream, and soft drinks to non-dairy alternatives together with customers and independent application companies. On the legislative side, our Food Additive dossier is in the risk assessment phase of evaluation by the EFSA.

How do you experience working in a shared lab ecosystem?

We have very much enjoyed working in a shared lab ecosystem since the pilot of Open Kitchen Labs became available, already more than two years ago! The move from Matrix VI to Matrix ONE was great since we now have so much more space to work in and a great view of the campus as well from the ground floor. The cooperation between start-ups and scale-ups has been wonderful since the start, we are all moving through the same stages and can help each other tremendously.

Do you see value in knowledge sharing and networking with other companies active in the same industry?

Yes, I see great value in sharing knowledge and experiences with other companies both active in the same industry but also in other sectors. My personal belief is that you can learn from anybody, everybody has his/her own experiences in life that are valuable to others. The events of the Amsterdam Chemistry Network for instance are great for networking and getting up to a speed of what is happening in the (in this case) chemical industry.

Do you see value in proximity to the University of Amsterdam and other companies at Science Park?

I also see great value in the proximity to the University of Amsterdam with all their experienced staff and an excellent array of equipment that can be used for detail analysis. Especially companies like Spark904 helped us a lot to gain an understanding of the impurities of our product.

Who would you recommend Open Kitchen Labs?

I would definitely recommend Open Kitchen Labs to any start-up or scale-up that is looking for a flexible laboratory space which is fully equipped and has an outstanding lab manager to help out with all kinds of experimentation. It is also good to mention that food and agriculture-related start-ups and scale-ups are also very welcome, Open Kitchen Labs is not only targeted towards chemistry-related companies.

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