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Brad Edson, NutraCea's President and Chief Executive Officer said, "TheUSDA approval presents an important opportunity for NutraCea to begin tosupply hundreds of new customers in the meat industry with stabilized ricebran. It should be a welcome event for meat industry customers, who will beable to capture cost savings and improve product yields."
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Separately, an independent study conducted recently at Iowa StateUniversity demonstrated that SRB added to chicken nuggets and hot dogs yieldeda host of benefits, ranging from cost savings to better nutrition.
The study performed at Iowa State by PHD Technologies and overseen by itsfounder, Gits Prabhu, Ph.D, one of the industry's leading meat scienceauthorities, demonstrated a wide range of benefits by adding SRB to chickennuggets and hot dogs. Dr. Prabhu said, "We are enthusiastic about the results,which clearly demonstrate significant cost savings, increased yield, ahealthier nutritional profile and minimal change in taste when NutraCea's SRBis added to chicken nuggets and hot dogs."
Dr. Prabhu added, "According to our research, incorporating SRB at 2percent and 3.5 percent inclusion levels in chicken nuggets lowered productioncosts by $0.02 and $0.04 respectively per pound. In hot dogs the productioncosts are reduced by $0.01 and $0.02 respectively per pound when SRB is usedat 2 percent and 3.5 percent inclusion levels.
Kody Newland, Senior Vice President of Sales at NutraCea said, "In 2007,consumers spent more than $4.1 billion on hot dogs and sausages in U.S.supermarkets -- that equals more than 1.5 billion pounds of hot dogs andsausages bought at retail stores alone."
"Domestically, the addition of SRB to hot dogs and sausages is permissibleat a 3.5 percent maximum inclusion level as a functional ingredient and incertain countries outside the U.S. it can be much higher than that. Thisrepresents a new channel of distribution for NutraCea and we intend to pursuethis marketing opportunity on a global scale," added Newland.
The Company said that, historically, rice bran has been fed to livestock,and adding it to meat during the processing phase is actually a more efficientand environmentally sound use of the product. "It takes approximately sixpounds of grain to produce one pound of beef, and it's a four-to-one ratio inpork. By adding SRB to these meats during the formulation phase, we are, infact, utilizing the product more efficiently and making more food available atlower cost -- at a time when food prices are spiraling out of control," saidLeo Gingras, NutraCea's Chief Operating Officer.
Gingras added, "We have filed provisional patents both domestically andinternationally to protect our new product for meat enhancement and withregulatory approval now in place in the U.S. we are poised to supply SRB forthis application worldwide."
About NutraCea
NutraCea is a leader in stabilized rice bran nutrient research and dietarysupplement development. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, RiceX, theCompany manufactures and distributes products and food ingredients made fromrice bran through its proprietary technology and processes. NutraCea hasdeveloped intellectual properties to create a range of proprietary productformulations, delivery systems and whole food nutrition products. TheCompany's proprie