Menicon turns coffee into cow feed for Starbucks

Starbucks Coffee has partnered with Menicon in Japan to pioneer fermentation technology that converts coffee grounds into cow feed. Menicon researchers experimenting with fermentation technologies found a technique that worked on coffee compost. Menicon, in a joint venture with the Veterinary Medicine Department of Azabu University, then used this technology to develop a cattle feed. Starbucks refrigerated trucks, that were fitted with a special cold-storage space, then shipped used beans from Tokyo stores to the processing plant in the Tokyo suburbs. Some of the milk in Starbucks stores in Japan now comes from coffee-fed cows. Menicon and Starbucks, along with Sanyu Plant Service, have jointly applied for a patent on the process used to produce this lactic-acid-fermented feed.