Crop waste to single-cell protein (RD059)

Aim:

This project aims to assess an alternative protein ingredient for aquaculture feed, made from crop by-products such as straw to demonstrate the scalability of production, and therefore the ability of the single-cell protein product to replace less-sustainable feeds.

Funding Amount:

£249,486.40

Duration of Project:

TBC

Project Outcome:

This Seafood Innovation Fund project successfully scaled-up a novel process for the production of sustainable protein ingredients for aquaculture feeds, to feed industry to find alternatives to soy protein concentrate and fishmeal.

By scaling-up the processes to pre-commercial scale, we were able to product test volumes of the novel bacterial protein ingredient. These were then formulated into test diets and fed to salmon in an extensive feeding trial, which showed that the protein can effectively replace incumbent ingredients, even at high inclusion levels. The trial also showed a high digestibility of the ingredient, and no negative impacts on the animal health.

Being price competitive is essential to widespread uptake of novel ingredients, and the data we collected during this project allowed us to validate our production costs, showing that we can compete with the incumbents on price.

Putting all of this together gave us a platform from which to engage the major potential customers in the aquaculture feed space, and kick off relationships which lead to piloting the product and ultimately customer uptake.

STATUS: Completed

Project Lead

BioKind Ltd