A new peer-reviewed LCA study confirms that Protix’s insect ingredients deliver a very low environmental footprint in emissions, land, and water use compared to conventional feed sources.
A recent peer review published in ScienceDirect confirms Protix’s Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) data, demonstrating that the company’s insect ingredients have a remarkably low environmental footprint in land and water use, as well as emissions. The results are based on primary data collated directly from Protix’s commercial operation, which operates 24/7 at full capacity. The figures therefore reflect real-life impact at industrial scale. The company highlights that while the data are specific to Protix’s insect ingredients, they highlight the insect industry’s exciting capacity to lead sustainable change.
Protix is one of the leaders in insect ingredients for pet food, animal feed and plant care worldwide. The company describes itself as passionate about driving down the environmental impact across the feed and food system.
Piotr Postepski, Chief Commercial Officer of Protix, says: “We welcome these peer-reviewed results as independent confirmation of the capacity of our insect ingredients to significantly reduce the environmental impact. There is still a lot of potential to lower the footprint of the black soldier fly ever further, for example with government approval for the use of lower grade feedstock. This is something we continue to work tirelessly on.”
The peer review data for Protix’s products compared against incumbent ingredients yield the following:
• ProteinX® premium insect meal is confirmed to reduce CO2 emissions by 78% compared with the poultry meal often used in pet food and livestock feed. Compared to soy protein concentrate, an ingredient often used in aquaculture, ProteinX lowers CO2 emissions by as much as 89%.
• For LipidX®, Protix’s premium insect fat, the land use figure was already close to zero. The peer review shows it has improved even further, now approaching near-zero levels. Compared to coconut oil, a common fat source in livestock and aquaculture feed and pet food, LipidX achieves 100% less land use as a result.
• PureeX®, Protix’s unique fresh insect meat, uses a staggering 99.8% less water than the poultry meat commonly used in pet food as a high moisture protein source.
These figures either remained the same or showed even greater environmental benefits against earlier comparisons published by Protix. Back in 2024, Protix already published LCA results based on data collected from the Bergen op Zoom plant in 2023. The improvements between the peer-reviewed numbers and the numbers published in 2024 are mainly due to the fact that some external databases that the scientists used for feedstock data and energy mix data had undergone some changes.
Additional comparisons yield the following impressive data:
• ProteinX high-quality insect meal reduces CO2 emissions by 20.4% compared with fishmeal.
• In terms of soy bean, ProteinX premium insect meal reduces CO2 emissions by 52.6% compared with soy meal.
The updated LCA white paper for Protix’s products can be downloaded online.
