Innovative poultry feed solutions are being explored through collaboration between universities and industry to tackle emissions and environmental impacts in poultry production. While life cycle assessment (LCA) plays a vital role in evaluating sustainability, limitations in data and modelling accuracy pose challenges. A new project aims to overcome these barriers—but how will it address gaps in supply chain transparency and measurement precision?
Environmental Researcher
University of Chester
The urgency of feeding our expanding global population has never been clearer. With UN projections estimating a population rise to 9.8 billion by 2050, and 10.3 billion by 20801, there is huge pressure to ensure long-term food security. There are increasing concerns about the environmental impact of global agri-food production, responsible for an estimated 23% of total greenhouse gas emissions.2 As a result, it’s essential for farmers and producers to adapt their methods, making evaluating these practices more critical than ever. Feed suppliers and farmers must assess their environmental impacts not only to improve sustainability, but also to meet statutory reporting requirements on the journey to a Net Zero transition.
ROLE OF LCA
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a powerful tool that enables the comparison of the environmental performance of production systems, helping to identify potential impacts on environmental outputs such as Global Warming Potential (measured in estimated CO2 emissions). LCA can play an important role in animal production; helping producers, retailers, policymakers, and researchers make informed decisions about management practices, feed choices and aiding the identification of the most sustainable options. By using life cycle assessment to systematically evaluate and mitigate the environmental impacts of poultry production, we can enhance the sustainability of supply chains. This proactive approach strengthens the industry’s resilience while contributing to broader resilience.
That’s not to say LCA doesn’t have challenges.3 An important step in the process is creating an inventory (LCI), by gathering data inputs and outputs at each production stage. This includes primary data collected directly from farms and production facilities, which can be challenging, and costly to obtain. Secondary data from existing databases, published studies, and industry reports is frequently used to fill the gaps, although can decrease the accuracy of the assessment and the importance to the commercial industry. While LCA is highly valuable for providing a broad environmental overview, its reliance on large amounts of secondary data may limit the ability to capture farm-specific variations. As a result, it may not always offer a comprehensive representation of on-the-ground conditions necessary for reporting to government authorities, processors, and consumers.
CHALLENGES ASSOCIATED WITH LCA APPLICATION
Due to the perceived lack of robust scientific data and reliability of modelled data, LCA faces scepticism from nutrition researchers.4 Predicting the biological responses of poultry, for instance, can be tricky. Many experiments lack replication under controlled conditions and are influenced by external factors like temperature and pH, leading to significant margins for error. Moreover, the results of an LCA can vary widely depending on the choice of database and methodology used, making comparisons between studies challenging and unreliable.5
The standardised LCA methodologies may not accommodate emerging feed innovations, new sourcing strategies, or novel processing techniques that lack established impact data. This can result in overly conservative assessments that discourage experimentation with alternative feed ingredients due to gaps or uncertainties in LCA databases.
Additionally, LCA requires detailed and reliable supply chain data, which can be difficult to obtain in global feed systems. When ingredient availability fluctuates, or new suppliers enter the market, the time and resources needed to update LCA models can slow down decision-making and discourage agile adaptation to new, more sustainable options. Regulatory bodies and retailers often use LCA-based certifications and sustainability benchmarks to assess suppliers6, meaning that innovations with unproven LCA data may struggle to gain market acceptance, despite their potential benefits.
To gain a competitive advantage from a low carbon innovation in animal production, theoretical modelling isn’t sufficient. It’s therefore essential to provide a robust and transparent calculation that shows the innovation, or intervention which has led to measurable improvements.
CURRENT LCI TYPE APPLICATIONS TO CONTROLLED FEEDING INVESTIGATIONS
Nottingham Trent University (NTU) has developed an in-house system for doing this, but the number of factors not measured and unaccounted for are enormous. This means NTU can precisely quantify the impact of a feed change but it is not possible to generate the accurate data that can be used as part of larger LCA models to create more meaningful insight on a macro scale.
Emily Burton Professor in Sustainable Food Production in NTU’s School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences, said, “We had to develop a system to apply in our research unit, that allowed us to quantify the impact of diet change, but it seems such a waste of generating such precise raw data not to end up with something that can contribute to a more widely used LCA system.”
CHALLENGES OF INNOVATION THROUGHOUT THE SUPPLY CHAIN
Innovation in poultry feed supply chains is challenging, especially when balancing limited resources with the need for transparency across all stakeholders. Fluctuations in ingredient availability, feed composition and sourcing practices make it difficult to quantify environmental impacts with precision as mentioned above. Reliable data is therefore essential not only for assessing sustainability but also for supporting downstream stakeholders who rely on accurate reporting to meet compliance, traceability, and sustainability goals.
Processors need consistent data on feed inputs to evaluate meat quality, efficiency, and regulatory compliance, while supermarkets demand clear traceability and environmental impact metrics. Consumers increasingly expect transparency regarding issues such as deforestation-linked soy, carbon footprints, and animal welfare. However, gaps in supply chain data, evolving feed formulations, and shifting market dynamics complicate efforts to generate accurate, real-time LCA insights.
Addressing these challenges requires integrated monitoring systems, standardised data collection, and collaboration across the supply chain. A comprehensive, data-driven approach is necessary to improve supply chain visibility, ensure accountability, and support informed decision-making for all stakeholders.
HOW DO WE TACKLE IT?
Collaboration between businesses (farmers, processor and feed suppliers) and researchers is crucial to bridge knowledge gaps and achieve holistic outcomes. Nottingham Trent University and the University of Chester (UoC) are exemplifying this approach by working in partnership to investigate sustainable feed interventions in the poultry industry.
Professor of Environmental Organisational Sustainability Julieanna Powell-Turner from the University of Chester explained, “Emissions are a challenge for the UK poultry industry, emphasising the need to understand our emissions and take new approaches to tackle them. This includes considering new and innovative feed options to reduce the large environmental impacts soy and it’s supply chain have on the product of packaged poultry.”
The two universities are joining forces, along with commercial partners, including project lead Flybox®, on a project funded by Innovate UK as part of the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs’ (Defra) Farming Innovation Programme.
Professor Powell-Turner continued, “The Feedflow project aims to use Black Soldier Fly larvae to convert waste into high-protein broiler feed. Working with our expert nutritionist partners at NTU will allow us to consider nutritional value of the feed alongside the environmental impact.”
By starting their collaboration early in the project, the researchers are maximizing the collection of in vivo data. This will include direct emissions measurements—often overlooked or modelled in LCAs—as well as an analysis of waste products. Most of the data will be gathered from the Flybox Research and Development pod and NTU’s poultry facility, a controlled experimental environment. Through this collaborative effort, the team aims to develop an LCA model that can be adapted to suit the needs of the poultry industry, decision-makers and consumers.
Nick Davies from 2SFG added, “It’s essential that we are focused on collaborative approaches to research and partnerships that can deliver quantitative, science, data-based solutions. This will help support and deliver solutions on current and future challenges is essential for us to provide affordable, sustainable solutions through brilliant basics. Combining the basics, innovation, academia, and the new novel approaches will demonstrate our industry’s willingness to embraces change, adopt new practices where needed to deliver sustainable products and do our bit for the planet in a measured way.”
References
1United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, P. D. World Population Prospects 2024: Summary of Results (2024)
2Gołasa, P. et al. Sources of greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture, with particular emphasis on emissions from energy used. Energies (Basel) 14, (2021)
3Finkbeiner, M. et al. Challenges in Life Cycle Assessment: An Overview of Current Gaps and Research Needs. in 207–258 (2014). doi:10.1007/978-94-017-8697-3_7
4Alkhtib, A., Wilson, P., Bedford, M. R., O’Neill, H. ‘Nell’ M. & Burton, E. Can the broiler industry rely on results of existing life cycle assessment and environmental assessments studies to inform broilers’ nutritional strategies? Poultry Science vol. 102 Preprint at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psj.2023.102667 (2023)
5Alkhtib, A., Burton, E., Wilson, P. B., Scholey, D. & Bentley, J. Effect of life cycle inventory choices and nutritional variation on carbon footprint of broiler meat production. J Clean Prod 383, (2023)
6Ott, D. et al. LCA as decision support tool in the food and feed sector: evidence from R&D case studies. Environ Syst Decis 43, 129–141 (2023)
About Jess Callaghan
With a background working on energy efficiency and fuel poverty projects, Jess Callaghan joined the Centre for Research into Environmental and Sustainable Transitions (CREST) in June 2024. She is an experienced project manager and data insights specialist and is passionate about presenting data in a way that is accessible and comprehendible to a range of audiences, and using data for informed decision making. Callaghan has recently trained in completing LCAs and will be using these to assess the environmental impact of rural and agricultural practices. She is currently working on a UKRI funded project with a consortium of partners. FeedFlow: Innovative Methods for Improving Poultry Feeding, Welfare and Health, through AI and BSFL (EIA and LCA applications to whole LC Inventories) UoC’s role in the project is to assess the environmetnal impact of the feeding strategies using LCA.
