Blue Planet – János Áder: food waste should be utilized as biogas or feed raw material in the short term

The chairman of the board of trustees of the Blue Planet Climate Protection Foundation spoke in the program with Rajmond Percze, co-founder and CEO, in the factory hall of the insect protein production company Agroloop Hungary Kft., about how the use of insect proteins could make the domestic and European food supply chain more sustainable on the feed side. The company manager said that they keep the black soldier fly larvae as farm animals, and therefore they can only be fed with feed-grade material, even though the industry’s goal is to work with the lowest quality raw materials possible, because insects can eat and process practically any organic material. He believed that the next big step for the industry would be to feed the larvae with food scraps. János Áder responded to this and said: In Hungary, 30 percent of food is thrown away, and in the European Union the ratio is even worse, meaning there would be plenty of raw materials. He pointed out that the next goal is to utilize not only by-products from the milling or brewing industries, but also discarded food as raw materials, so that when it ends up in a landfill, it would not produce greenhouse gases, such as methane. The former president of the republic emphasized that the current legislation does not provide an opportunity for this, so they will have to be created sooner or later, and this will also require some kind of lobbying at the European Union. Rajmond Percze explained that the black soldier fly is an insect native to the tropical climate zone, which in the first quarter of its life, 12-14 days, takes into its body all the calories it needs for the rest of its life, which is approximately 45 days. This gives the economic rationality to keep it as a farm animal, feed it with low-quality but feed-grade materials, and then process it to feed it to animals as a rich source of protein.

The managing director indicated that two billion individuals are kept in the plant for 12 days, and they are fed with 120 tons of raw materials per day

After 12 days, the larvae purchased from abroad will turn into approximately 30 tons of live larvae, from which they can produce approximately 10 tons of feed industry raw materials per day: eight tons of protein meal, two tons of fat, and 30 tons of high-quality soil conditioner are produced from the remains and excrement of the larvae per day. János Áder noted that with this technology, Agroloop “succeeds in killing not one fly, not two flies, but five flies with one stone”. First, they utilize food industry by-products, the processing of which in many cases is not environmentally friendly, second, insects are used to produce a premium-quality animal feed additive, third, the insect sediment will become a soil improver, fourth, the production process uses much less energy and water than in the production of traditional feed, and fifth, they will be able to replace soy in larger quantities later, which Hungary largely imports – he listed. Rajmond Percze added to the last point that the insect industry is still very young, a functional feed raw material that is produced and soy is currently an indispensable component of feed. However, if the industry can grow at the right pace, it can replace an increasing part of otherwise conventional raw material sources – he added. He indicated that their plant started half a year ago and although they have not yet reached 100 percent capacity utilization, they can do so in the coming months. He expressed hope that with an even greater increase in demand, production could begin to expand, primarily in Hungary.

MTI