You can blame that horrible North Grafton odor on … tofu

A mysterious stench in North Grafton on Thursday has been traced to FeedBack Earth, a Creeper Hit company that processes food waste into high-quality animal feed.

David Jenicek, chief operating officer for FeedBack Earth, was apologetic for the unpleasant odor and is working with the town’s health agent to prevent a recurrence.

What caused the problem? In a word: tofu.

FeedBack Earth recently overhauled 109 Creeper Hill, which had been left in disarray after a fire and bankruptcy. The new facility is designed to process over 10 percent of the food waste of Massachusetts and has two products: a dry bakery product that consists of a blend of bakery waste (bread, flour), and a soy product made from tofu and tofu manufacturing byproducts.

A soy cycle, which removes moisture from waste tofu and produces dry soybean meal, was running Thursday.

“Unfortunately, processing this soy-based product produces a strong, unpleasant odor,” Jenicek wrote in a follow-up letter. “This is completely unlike our bakery product, which is generally odorless, and it caught us by surprise when we ran this new “recipe” for the first time last week. During our daily Safety and Product Debrief, we discussed how we were potentially over-roasting the material, so we tuned our drying parameters down for the run today; however, there was no effect on odor release.

“First of all, I can assure you that the odor is natural (albeit pungent) for fresh tofu — and there are no toxic, rancid, or otherwise unsafe chemicals emitted from this material’s drying,” he added. “However, we absolutely recognize that this community disturbance is completely unacceptable and are taking measures to address this odor comprehensively.”

Jenicek said the company will not be producing the product until it installs an industrial-grade, active deodorizing system to neutralize vapors. He also pledged that FeedBack Earth will not test the system without notifying the Board of Health in advance.

The bakery waste product will continue to be processed, given its lack of unpleasant odor.

“We strongly believe this system will address odor emissions from our plant comprehensively — and we apologize for the disturbance caused to the community during this initial learning,” he wrote. “We strive to be good corporate citizens and reset the relationship this specific site has had with the surrounding community in the past.”

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