Bühler’s insect technology enters new phase for contributing to a sustainable meat value chain

25 Mar 2021 --- The rate of global dietary change will not be quick enough to reduce CO2 emissions by 2030 sufficiently, according to Bühler. And, industry must contribute urgently to delivering a more sustainable meat value chain.

Insects will play a key role in building more sustainable chicken and aquaculture value chains, notes the company. This is a necessity if the industry is to provide adequate protein to feed the ballooning population. 

Bühler is boosting its commitment to ambitious targets that will help mitigate climate change. The company targets reducing waste, energy consumption and water use by 50 percent in its customers’ value chains. 

To deliver by 2030, both Bühler and the industry must have solutions ready to scale before 2025.

Less agricultural land 
“One key strategy to sustainably feed the planet’s growing population is the reduction of agricultural land by more than a third. By doing that, we would bring carbon emissions within planetary boundaries. A major driver of both land use and CO2 production is humankind's consumption of proteins, in particular meat,” says the company.

The considerable growth in non-animal meat alternatives, primarily from plant-based products, indicates a strong desire to eat more sustainably from a climate change perspective, says Bühler.

One opportunity to reduce the CO2 footprint of meat is insects for feed, particularly poultry and aquaculture. 

Embedding insect production into the farming system unlocks the benefits of circular economy and inclusive business creation, providing a protein source from side streams, reducing the depletion of fish stocks in oceans by replacing wild catch for fish feed, and providing a low CO2 footprint protein source for poultry. 

“Importantly, this can come with significantly reduced land use for the feed production,” adds Bühler.

Insect ecosystem
Bühler – which provides technology solutions for the growth and processing of insects to enable the industrial-scale transformation of organic residues into high-value insect-based ingredients – says it will play a key role in developing this nascent industry sector to reduce the CO2 footprint of meat production. 

The company has a larvae storage system that allows full decoupling of insect rearing from processing, offering flexibility in the operational schedule. Bühler’s technology succeeded in the field test and is now ready for broad industrial use.

After four years of close collaboration, Bühler reached a milestone with one of its partners, Protix, as their fully automated industrial black soldier fly processing plant in Bergen Op Zoom in North Brabant, Netherlands, reached its full processing capacity. 

This marks a proof point in the insect industry and the successful completion of the joint venture between Bühler and Protix.

“I am pleased that Bühler is ready and able to address the insect market with proven technologies, and I am excited by the pipeline of projects building up. I am looking forward to seeing new projects realized, thus contributing to achieve Bühler's sustainability targets,” says Andreas Baumann, managing director of the Bühler Insect Technology business.

“We believe that insect-based ingredients offer a new category of nutrition for the food system. The realization of such a new category demands a total ecosystem approach with multiple parties collaborating intensely,” adds Kees Aarts, CEO and founder of Protix. 

Edited by Gaynor Selby