8.1 Trouw Nutrition replacing food-grade feed ingredients

As the scarcity and valorisation of raw materials continues to be a rising challenge, and the world population continues to grow (and with it the demand for animal protein), the feed and food industry are constantly searching for new and innovative solutions to ensure sustainable and future-proof production.

 

One commonly known factor is the use of human food-grade plant protein being used as animal feed ingredients. For example, grains like soy, maize and wheat that could be utilised to manufacture nutritious food, are currently also used to produce animal feed. Though this will remain in high demand, and preserving these raw materials remains one of the main topics of the feed processing industry, there might be possibilities of utilising by-products from the food industry to replace a part of these materials.

Recently, Trouw Nutrition and Heineken, one of the world’s largest beer producers, started a shared initiative to connect the food and the feed industry. As part of Trouw Nutrition’s food by-product preservation programme, the two companies are working together to investigate the possibilities to increase value from by-products by application of Selko Revalet®.

 

“One of the objectives of Heineken’s sustainability programme ‘Brewing a Better World’, is to eliminate waste from breweries going to landfill. Our organic by-products from the brewing process like spent grain and spent yeast contain many nutrients like fibres, protein and minerals and have great value as food or feed application. We apply Revalet in some countries to stabilise the spent yeast and create a better-quality feed product. In some countries, though, such as Nigeria, we still see organic by-products ending up as landfill. Microbial deterioration of the spent yeast is, for example, limiting its use as feed application. With Revalet, Trouw Nutrition offers us a natural solution to preserve the spent yeast, creating opportunities to make this product available for animal feed in many countries.”

Esther Kruiper, Senior Global Lead Circular Economy at Heineken Global Supply Chain

“Together with Trouw Nutrition we embarked upon a cooperation with a leading beer producer in Nigeria. We were even more interested when we found out the manufacturer was one of the world’s leading breweries! With Heineken we are looking forward to join forces and utilising spent yeast as a nutritious (and tasty) feed ingredient, while reducing the need for grains that can otherwise be used for human food production. With the addition of the spent yeast, we are aiming to replace 3,500-5,000 tonnes of food-grade soy bean meal on an annual basis.”
Seyi Adeleke-Ige, General Manager Skretting Nigeria

As Heineken indicated, one of the countries that it’s looking to implement the food by- product preservation programme in is Nigeria, where also the connection with Skretting Nigeria plays a key role. The solution works in two ways: it reduces the nutritional losses of brewers’ spent yeast by effective microbial control while, at the same time, reducing the amount of human food-grade plant protein use to make animal feeds.

This does not only apply to the beer industry. Selko’s food by-product preservation programme can be applied in a broad range of food processing or producing industries. Especially in places where by-products contain high levels of protein, such as dairy processing and starch production. Within the programme, Trouw Nutrition partners with companies to determine the most effective inclusion rate of our Revalet product range by performing dose response tests. Furthermore, the programme offer includes user friendly, state-of-the-art dosing equipment to allow for accurate, homogenous and safe dosing of the products.

Selko Revalet® was nominated as one of eight shortlisted finalists in the 2021 EDIE Sustainability Leaders Awards in the category of “Product Innovation of the Year”.