food tech USA plant-based

What Whole In-Shell Peanuts Bring to Peanut Butter

RE-NUT AG

June 2, 2026

The peanut is one of the most-loved foods on the planet and one of the most processed. Conventional peanut butter starts by discarding nearly half the raw material before the first grind. RE-NUT® starts differently: with the whole peanut, shell and all. Here's why that changes everything.

A beloved ingredient with an overlooked opportunity

Peanut butter is among the most consumed B2B food ingredients in the world. It anchors breakfast staples, protein bars, confectionery, sauces, and functional snacks across virtually every food category. The global peanut butter market was valued at approximately USD 6.9–7.4 billion in 2024–2025, with multiple independent forecasts projecting growth of 5–7% annually through the early 2030s, driven by rising demand for plant-based protein, clean-label nutrition, and sugar-reduced food products.

Yet the core production process has barely changed in a century. Shelled peanut kernels are roasted, ground, and stabilised. The hard outer shell — which accounts for roughly 25–30% of the whole in-shell peanut's mass — is separated out beforehand and treated as an agricultural by-product, most often burned for energy or used as livestock bedding.

RE-NUT® asks a simple but powerful question: what if we used the whole peanut?

Let's get sciency: what is actually inside a peanut shell?

Peanut shells (Arachis hypogaea hulls) have long been dismissed as nutritionally inert waste. The science tells a different story. Peer-reviewed analyses confirm that peanut shells are a structurally complex, bioactivity-rich material:

Dietary fiber: The shell is composed predominantly of cellulose (~48%), hemicellulose (~3%), and lignin (~28%), a tightly interlocked matrix of insoluble dietary fiber that contributes meaningfully to the fiber density of the resulting paste (Zhang et al., Food Science & Nutrition, 2025).
Polyphenols and flavonoids: Peanut shells exhibit high antioxidant potential, with total polyphenol content measured at 428–740 µg gallic acid equivalents per gram, and total flavonoid content at 143–568 µg quercetin equivalents per gram (Adhikari et al., 2019; Imran et al., 2022).
Luteolin: The dominant flavonoid in peanut shells is luteolin, with concentrations reaching up to 3,184 µg/g dry weight, exceptionally high compared to most plant-based food sources (Peng et al., 2021, as cited in Wiley Open Access, 2024). Luteolin has been extensively studied for its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and lipid-modulating bioactivities (Liu et al., 2022; Imran et al., 2025, Food Science & Nutrition).
Additional bioactive compounds: Shells also contain carotene, eriodictyol, isosaponaretin, and amino acids with established bioactive profiles.

Critically, research demonstrates that roasting enhances rather than diminishes the antioxidant and flavonoid activity of the shell material (Hassan et al., 2022). The RE-NUT® process, which begins with roasted in-shell peanuts, is therefore well-positioned to retain and integrate these bioactives into the finished paste.

The RE-NUT® Oil-Based Process

How RE-NUT® produces in-shell peanut paste

The RE-NUT® process applies the patented milling and fine grinding technology applied to peanuts under a dedicated patent. The process begins with whole, roasted in-shell peanuts. These are finely ground, where particle size is progressively reduced to target specifications. The result is a smooth, high-fat, high-fiber peanut paste incorporating the kernel and shell components. Fat content is adjustable and the grinding degree is tunable to the target application, from spreadable butter to confectionery paste. There is no waste stream. What would conventionally be burned or landfilled is instead fully converted into food-grade, commercially valuable ingredients.

For product developers, this means a peanut paste that carries more fiber and antioxidants into the finished product, without additives, without concentrates, without artificial fortification. The nutritional upgrade is inherent in the process.

Why this matters for food manufacturers

Three converging trends make RE-NUT® Peanut Paste particularly timely for B2B food ingredient buyers:

1. The fiber gap is real and getting harder to ignore

Dietary fiber deficiency is a well-documented public health challenge in high-income markets. Average fiber intake in the United States sits at approximately 15–16 g per day, less than half the recommended 25–38 g (Dahl & Stewart, Nutrition Reviews, 2015). Consumers and regulators are increasingly aware. Food manufacturers are under mounting pressure to improve the fiber profile of everyday products, without sacrificing taste or texture. RE-NUT® Peanut Solids and Paste offer a 100% natural, label-friendly route to doing exactly that.

2. Clean-label and sugar-reduction pressures are intensifying

The shell-derived solids fraction in RE-NUT® Peanut Paste functions as a natural, calorie-efficient bulking agent. This creates a meaningful opportunity for sugar reduction in chocolate spreads, cookies, and confectionery without synthetic fillers or declared additives. The ingredient list stays short and recognizable: precisely what today's B2B buyers need to meet retailer clean-label requirements.

3. Sustainability transparency is becoming a commercial requirement

With the EU's Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive (ECGT) enforcement approaching in September 2026, and global pressure on agricultural supply chains to reduce waste, ingredient buyers increasingly need to demonstrate measurable sustainability outcomes. RE-NUT® provides a concrete, process-anchored claim: zero shell waste, higher ingredient yield per peanut crop, and reduced pressure on the farmland and water resources invested in growing them.

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