[:en]The second life of old bread: beer. Franco di Pietro talks to us about Biova, the beer that comes from bread. [:]

[:it]by ELISABETTA LUGLI

Giving stale bread a second chance: this is the simple, yet brilliant, intuition behind Biova Project, a start-up born in Turin in 2018 and already become a prominent reality that has widely crossed the city's borders.

Biova, in Piedmont, is the name of a type of soft, white bread. Like all other types of bread, unfortunately, every day it becomes leftover, being perishable, and is thrown away. Especially in larger businesses: first and foremost in large-scale retail trade, but also in bakeries and restaurants.

The startup Biova takes this bread that was meant to be thrown away and turns it into beer: or rather, to be precise, into a good craft beer. Very good, we tasted it, and we spoke with Franco Dipietro, one of the founders of Biova.

Franco, how did you get the idea to produce beer starting from bread?

I have always worked in the communications sector. Because of my work I happened to deal with some non-profit associations related to food recovery: the experience opened my eyes to the size of the problem, and from there I got the idea. We throw away a lot of bread every day.

How much bread is used to produce Biova beer?

Calculate that for 2500 liters of beer more than 100 kg of bread are used. But in addition to this reduction in food waste, there is more: with our process 30% less malt is needed to produce beer. So in addition to the recovery there is the reduction of the raw material. And of CO2 in the atmosphere.

What kind of beer is Biova?

There is not just one, for different types of bread different beers are produced. This is the beauty of it, Biova is a real circular economy project that all the companies that have bread waste can join. Let me give you an example: for M** Bun we produce an IPA. It is made with the unsold bread from their hamburgers. So there is no waste, and in their stores they serve Biova beer produced with their own waste. The same goes for Coop, for Carrefour. We take their bread, create the personalized recipe with our master brewer, then we produce it in the closest affiliated brewery. Our basic Biova is a Kolsch, Cologne style. Soon we will also produce a Pale Ale.

Much more could be said about this project, on a practical level: data, feedback, confirmations. More also on an emotional level: an innovative project, a start-up created by young people, which harmoniously combines the fight against waste with the circular economy, without distancing itself from local production realities. A project that works in difficult times and that opens a glimmer of light towards the future in this complicated present.

Among the good things about Biova, in fact, there is this: you don't have to wait to taste it, from today Biova can be ordered on Winelivery, in Turin and Milan. It can be yours in 30 minutes. We recommend you try it today!

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