In what it says is a world-first for wine-making, a company in Singapore is using wastewater from tofu making as the main ingredient in a new beverage.

The wine, called Sachi, is the world’s first alcoholic wine brewed sustainably from soy whey and is low in calories, rich in antioxidants, gluten-free, and vegan.

This new offering to the world of wine is the invention of food technology company SinFooTech. They specialise in up-cycling byproducts from food processing that would normally be wasted to create new and sustainable innovations.

The production process is like traditional wine making. After the soy whey is pasteurised through heating, it is transferred to fermentation tanks where yeast is added.

“It is just a waiting game after that,” says Fauzi Ismail, operations manager at SinFooTech.

"By using a novel base ingredient such as soy whey, we have succeeded in creating a series of never-before-seen alcoholic beverages, and we will continue to challenge the assumption that alcoholic beverages must be made from different raw materials” says Jonathan Ng, chief executive of SinFooTech.

"We want to revolutionise the way people think about alcoholic beverages, by inviting them to savour the possibilities."

With tasting notes similar to dessert wine, consumers can also try Sachi in lychee & rose, peach & oolong and yuzu & bergamot flavours, which the company says it has created to showcase soy wine’s versatility and engage with more consumers.