The importance of insects as a protein source in animal nutrition

Proteins are an essential component of a healthy and balanced diet. They are a part of every cell in the body, and help the body to build and repair cells and tissues. Lipids are also an important building block of healthy animal feed. Proteins and lipids in animal feed are often derived from soy, palm and fish. However, there is growing demand for a move to a more natural way of providing animals with high-quality nutrition with a lower environmental footprint.

Proteins and lipids are essential components of animal feed, but traditional sources such as soy protein concentrate, fish meal, palm and coconut fat contribute to the depletion of the world’s natural resources. Realistic alternatives are needed as the impacts of climate change become increasingly apparent. Insects, and the black soldier fly (BSF) in particular, offer an excellent sustainable solution that is good for the planet and for animals.

PROTEINS AND LIPIDS – BUILDING BLOCKS OF GOOD HEALTH
Proteins are an essential component of a healthy and balanced diet. They are a part of every cell in the body, and help the body to build and repair cells and tissues. Lipids are also an important building block of healthy animal feed. Proteins and lipids in animal feed are often derived from soy, palm and fish. However, there is growing demand for a move to a more natural way of providing animals with high-quality nutrition with a lower environmental footprint. To address this challenge, Protix provides insect ingredients as a sustainable alternative that brings the food system back into balance with nature. Many pet food manufacturers around the globe are already using insect ingredients in their formulations and larger livestock and aquaculture feed manufacturers are increasingly reaping the benefits of insect ingredients. As environmental concerns become more pressing, and with increasing urgency to take immediate action to protect and maintain the world’s natural resources, this concept is gaining increasing traction in the industry. Insects can now be supplied in reliable quality on a larger scale, and offer an attractive and sustainable solution for forward-thinking feed manufacturers who want to stay ahead of the demand for sustainability.

NATURAL AND SUSTAINABLE
Eating insects is nothing new to animals – it is a part of their natural behaviour. Chickens love to forage in the soil for grubs and bugs, and watching a cat or dog snapping at the air to catch a fly is highly amusing as the number of online videos posted by loving pet parents shows.

Incorporating insects into animal feed therefore feeds animals’ natural appetite. Insects are packed with goodness, and also offer benefits in terms of sustainability.

Insect proteins and fats are produced locally, and locally available plant-based by-products can be used to feed the insects. This reduces CO₂-emissions for transport to a minimum. In fact, the overall CO₂ footprint can be reduced by up to 24-fold compared with commonly used feed ingredients.

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT
A recent Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) conducted by the highly regarded Deutsches Institut für Lebensmitteltechnik (DIL) assessed exactly how sustainable insect ingredients from Protix are. Parameters measured included global warming, and the land and water used in producing insect ingredients. The analysis shows outstanding scores for insect proteins (ProteinX), lipids (LipidX) and purée (PureeX) produced in Protix’s Bergen Op Zoom facility. Highlights of the DIL study include:
– ProteinX insect meal (at 1.149 kg CO₂ equivalent) has almost a seven-fold lower CO₂ footprint than the soy protein concentrate (at 7.5 kg CO₂ equivalent) often found in livestock and aqua feed.
– Each kilogram of ProteinX reduces water consumption by 330 litres (190 litres vs 520 litres for soy protein concentrate).
– Replacing coconut oil with LipidX in pet food and livestock feed returns over 12 m² of arable land to nature for each kilogram of fats. LipidX® uses 0.898 m² of land compared with coconut oil at 12.98 m².
– The CO₂ footprint and impact on global warming is up to 24 times lower with insect-based PureeX (at 0.439 CO₂ equivalent per kilogram product) than with poultry meat (10.33 kg CO₂ equivalent), which is commonly used in pet food as a high moisture protein source.

Clearly, it can be concluded that the use of insects, specifically the black soldier fly, as a sustainable source of protein and other nutrients is a natural and logical step in creating a lower footprint while maintaining high taste and performance. Although a relatively new industry, scientific research and investment mean insects are a viable long-term solution.

SECRET TO THE SUCCESS: THE BLACK SOLDIER FLY
The secret to sustainability success is the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens). This species has an amazing capacity to consume organic waste and turn it rapidly into valuable proteins and lipids. It is the missing link in our food system. The larvae of the black soldier fly contain more nutrients than the larvae of other insects because the mature insect does not eat, and has to live off the accumulated reserves. The black soldier fly is nature’s most efficient upcycler, and without doubt the best candidate for the job.

PROVEN PERFORMANCE
Sustainability and naturalness alone are not enough, however. For livestock farmers, key parameters in terms of animal development, growth, wellbeing and health drive the bottom line. Testing and scientifically-proven data are essential in demonstrating the effects and benefits of insect ingredients.

In addition to the outstanding sustainable scores from the DIL Life Cycle Assessment, scientific studies demonstrate the excellent performance of insect ingredients.

PROTEINX® IS VITAL TO MAINTAIN PERFORMANCE WHEN REPLACING SOY
These results spell good news for the future of a sustainable feed and food system. Graphs show that replacing soy bean meal (SBM) in chicken feed with vegetable alternatives plus ProteinX results in the same wellbeing effect as soy, but with a considerably lower environmental impact.

More specifically, an average inclusion of 5% keeps average daily gain (ADG in gram), feed intake (ADFI in gram/day/bird), slaughter yield (in %) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) equal while reducing the carbon footprint by 34%. The graphs demonstrate the important part insects can play in the future of a feed and food system that corrects the current imbalance.

STRONGER TOGETHER
The use of insects in animal feed marks a step change. Protix believes that industry-wide collaboration can bring about such change. The company’s approach is to make insect-based feed viable through a spirit of collaboration with like-minded and forward-thinking partners.

To achieve the potential of insects in lowering the footprint of nutrition, stakeholders need to unite to expand their knowledge and work together to identify and test viable applications, substantiate (health) claims and bring about innovation. The company calls for industry players to pool their insights and knowledge for the greater good of the entire sector, and the planet.

As an example of this, a consortium of players in the poultry value chain has joined forces in a public-private partnership (PPP) in a three-phase study. Protix, ForFarmers, PHW Group Dutch entity Esbro, Venik and Wageningen Livestock Research will work together to investigate how insect ingredients from the black soldier fly in poultry feed affect sustainability, health and welfare parameters of slow-growing broiler chickens. This new PPP supports the Dutch national Knowledge & Innovation agenda and the National Protein strategy as well as the European Commission Farm to Fork strategy – promoting a circular agri-food system with the use of sustainable and local ingredients.

The range of feed raw materials could be expanded for chicken producers, although further information is still needed for the entire poultry chain. The consortium will move diligently forward on a science-based approach to evaluate potentially value-adding elements of chicken diets containing insect ingredients from the black soldier fly (BSF).

SUSTAINABLE SHRIMP FOR HEALTH
In ponds …
Farmed seafood is an important source of protein, but growth is constrained by the farmed seafood industry’s reliance on marine ingredients in aquaculture feed. The aquafeed industry is increasingly seeking sustainable sources of protein and fats while maintaining feed palatability and health benefits. To address this challenge, leading Netherlands-based shrimp importer Klaas Puul has formed a consortium with Nutreco-owned Skretting, the largest shrimp feed manufacturer in Ecuador, and Dutch sustainable feed ingredient suppliers Protix and Veramaris to supply supermarkets across Europe with more sustainable shrimp produced in Latin America.

Albert Heijn, the largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands and part of global retailer Ahold Delhaize, is the first retailer to commit to the project. Through this initiative, Skretting Ecuador will produce a new feed that among others will partly replace two ingredients, fishmeal and fish oil, increasing the diversity and flexibility and reducing the marine footprint in feed formulations. The aim is to reduce supply chain risks and provide more sustainable seafood. This includes increasing the use of novel ingredients and by-products in feed, and sourcing deforestation-free soy.

…and on land
In land-based farming, the challenge of delivering high-quality feed is compounded by the fact that any change in the feed that affects shrimp performance is immediately apparent, so consistency of the ingredients is particularly important. Even minor changes such as oxidation of the raw material of feed can have an impact.

Land-based shrimp farming specialists Oceanloop Group therefore joined forces with Protix and a handful of other key players in the aquaculture sector to develop a new local shrimp feed exclusively for land-based shrimp. The new product, called SHR EX, replaces marine protein with locally produced insect protein from a local and circular process. The product is not only more sustainable; initial research also shows a significant improvement in shrimp growth and survival rates while maintaining shrimp welfare and meeting increasing demand from consumers for locally sourced ingredients.

INTERNATIONAL SCALE-UP
Insect ingredients are gaining interest as a long-term solution to creating a sustainable and balanced feed and food system. However, obtaining the volume of insect ingredients needed in the same consistent quality with the reliability of on-time supply seems a challenge for manufacturers. Protix understands very well that demand for proven ingredients and concepts is growing, and is now on the verge of a major scale-up of its operations to reliably supply insect ingredients in a consistently high quality on a global scale.

By harnessing the remarkable capabilities of the black soldier fly and the benefits of collaborative partnerships with key industry stakeholders, Protix aims to release the power of insect-based nutrition. A long-term view of sustainability is essential if nature is to be brought back into balance, creating a sustainable future for everyone.

About Suzanne van den Eshof
With almost 20 years of marketing experience in B2C, B2B and Durables, Suzanne is passionate about food and sustainability. She loves investigating new avenues and shaping the future in collaboration with partners across the value chain. Suzanne holds a Master’s degree in Industrial Design Engineering from Delft Technical University in the Netherlands. She also completed a Marketing Excellence Programme at the Vlerick Business School in Belgium.