UK ingredient company Upcycled Plant Power (UPP) has obtained Grade A certification under the BRCGS Global Standard for Food Safety Issue 9 following its first audit, clearing a requirement that many established manufacturers take years to meet.
Alongside the BRCGS result, UPP has received Grade A Plant Based V1 certification from Eurofins, confirming the vegan status of its ingredients and the non-GMO nature of its inputs.
Facility and production capacity
The certification covers UPP’s facility at the UK Agri-Tech Centre in Edgmond, Newport, Shropshire, where the company runs its harvest-to-ingredient platform. The site can process 2,500 tonnes of biomass per annum and produce 1,000 tonnes of clean-label protein and fibre ingredients annually, operated by just two people due to a high degree of automation. It serves as the template for larger 10,000-tonne-per-annum modules, the first of which is planned for deployment in Scotland in 2027.
BRCGS is recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative and serves as a baseline accreditation for supplying major food manufacturers and retailers.
Scaling toward Tier 1 supply
Founded in June 2022, UPP converts underused brassica biomass, specifically the stems and stalks left after broccoli is harvested for retail, into protein and fibre ingredients using patent-protected harvest automation and sidestream processing. The company raised £3.5 million in late 2025, with climate-focused investor Elbow Beach contributing £1.5 million of that total.
CEO Mark Evans stated, “We chose doing natural ingredients right over novel science. Our Grade A certification at first audit reflects designing food safety and standards into the operating template from day one, which in turn gave us credibility with Tier 1 food producers and supermarkets. In this case doing it right allows you to go faster.
“We very much believe that innovation is the mechanism to address the challenges of the industry, but it must work with the industry, and it must be clean, natural, sustainable and improve both nutrition and margins. UPP offers that solution, and what BRCGS Grade A shows is that we offer it today.”
