Already attracting the attention of established food companies, including Wellington’s Fix & Fogg, a local startup is pioneering the transformation of native kānuka tree properties into a range of food ingredients.
Auckland University business lecturer Dr Kiri Dell has teamed up with chemical engineering academic Saeid Baroutian to develop a liquid smoke ingredient. Their startup, Nuka, has worked with the team at New Zealand Food Innovation Network’s Auckland base, FoodBowl, to complete a semi-commercial production run of Kānuka Liquid Smoke.
The product, which was said to ‘add an instant hangi flavour to your kai’, has been bought by Wellington peanut butter barons Fix & Fogg and plant-based meat company Plant Tech Nation.
Expected to start by early October, the next step is to set up a factory on a Māori land block in Ruatōria – likely in a shipping container first off – so production could be scaled up.
At present Nuka had investment from the commercial arm of University of Auckland, Uniservices, and landowners had provided access to the resource. Longer-term, the plan was to secure large commercial manufacturers as clients to underwrite the business.
In a statement, chemical and materials engineering associate professor Saeid Baroutian said the process of transforming kānuka into liquid smoke was done through fast pyrolysis, an intense heating process.
“Fast pyrolysis is a process in which kānuka wood chips are rapidly heated to 400-500 °C in the absence of air to be thermally decomposed into liquid smoke.”
Baroutian said his fast pyrolysis system resulted in a kānuka food flavouring ingredient that also acted as both an antioxidant and antimicrobial agent, helping to preserve and extend the shelf life of treated products.
