Cape Town food startup promotes sustainability 

Oh Oat, a Cape Town-based food startup is positively contributing to the environment with the sustainable production and packaging of oat milk.

Founded by entrepreneur and UCT Business Science graduate, Trent Pike and Renato Marchesini, Oh Oat officially launched in September 2020. 

In an interview with Ventureburn, Trent Pike, co-founder of Oh Oat explains that the conception of the food startup began two years ago and required tireless experimentation till creating the perfect batch. 

“This initial experimentation was the cause of many late nights, burnouts, and culinary disasters. To say we firmly believe in the 10 000 hour theory is a serious understatement.”

Moving to a factory premise in January 2020, the food startup has created a state-of-the-art pilot plant which is able to produce 32 0000 litres of oat milk each month. 

“Our first perfect-ish factory run was on the 3rd of September and it involved many a high-five and sigh of relief. We officially launched one week later, starting at the Oranjezicht Farmers Market and the NeighbourGoods market, before retailing at our first store, Nude Foods just a few days later,” said Pike. 

Completely bootstrapped, the food startup aims to create a product that promotes sustainability and changes the narrative surrounding vegan-based products. 

Sustainability

The food startup has incorporated sustainability throughout its business model, packaging its product in reusable wine bottles that are collected from local restaurants with recyclable aluminum caps and covered with a paper wrap made from FSC approved, uncoated and recyclable paper 

In addition, the paper wrap is easily removable allowing customers to re-use their bottles. A bottle deposit is charged on each sale, which encourages customers to return their bottles for reuse, creating a 360 sustainable business model and product. 

Technology

Oh Oat uses unique food science technology and technological tools to create its product. 

Pike provides insight into the tech tools employed at the factory. 

“One of our favourite pieces must be our homogeniser which takes our m*lk and pushes it through extremely high pressure (almost 200 bars) breaking down every particle to the same size (on a microscopic level). It’s what makes our m*lk so smooth, creamy, and silky.'”

The production of the oat milk is based on an enzymatic process that breaks down the long-chain carbohydrates into the oats into shorter ones. 

Pike explains that Oh Oat has a unique taste when compared to competitors. 

 “It’s creamy, rich, slightly sweet, and resembles traditional dairy m*lk quite closely. In addition to that our milk is fresh because we think fresh is best.”

Oh Oat is currently available in Cape Town and can be purchased at a number of retailers for a cost price of R40 -R50 per bottle, this is inclusive of the bottle deposit price. 

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Featured image: Oh Oat