Food inflation means big biz for alt. food supplements makers

With food prices rising globally by 83% over the past 36 months and expected to rise further through 2015, makers of nutritious, low-cost food ingredients could be seeing big business in the years ahead.

NutraCea (OTCBB: NTRZ), based in Phoenix, AZ, has developed a proprietary method for stabilizing rice bran, the nutrition-rich outer layer of the brown rice kernel, for use as a food ingredient, nutritional supplement and "enhancer" for processed meat products such as hot dogs, sausage, burgers and chicken nuggets.

Rice bran, which has traditionally been a wasted byproduct of the rice milling industry, is eco-friendly, highly nutritious and cheaper than other common food supplements such as soy and is starting to attract interest from food and nutraceuticals manufacturers worldwide.

On Thursday, NutraCea will announce a landmark agreement with China's leading food distributor to build the largest rice bran refinery in China.

The new refinery will process an estimated 500,000 metric tons of raw rice bran annually to produce NutraCea-branded rice bran oil and a wide array of functional food ingredients, finished food, nutraceuticals and pharmaceutical formulations for the China market.

If you are interested in learning more about this, visit www.nutracea.com.