October 29, 2019

Lallemand partners Norwegian research unit that develops sustainable feed ingredients

Lallemand Animal Nutrition is now an official partner of Foods of Norway- a development that will strengthen the creation of innovative feeds for aquaculture and agriculture.

Foods of Norway is a centre for research-based innovation (CRI) at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. It aims to contribute to growth and increased value creation in the Norwegian aquaculture and agriculture industries, by developing sustainable feed ingredients from natural bioresources that are not suitable for direct human consumption.

"While we have been connected to this research consortium since the start of the project, Lallemand Animal Nutrition is proud to officially join Food of Norway," said Mathieu Castex, research and development director of Lallemand Animal Nutrition.

Continued research and development in the production of microbial ingredients can make an important contribution to securing the sustainability of the agriculture and aquaculture industry. Advances in the microbial protein technology have been driven by large industrial companies in close collaboration with universities and research institutes.

Margareth Øverland, center director of Foods of Norway, said: "With Lallemand as a partner, with their strong expertise in fermentation technology and access to large-scale infrastructure, this will be an important step in taking the technology of Foods of Norway further. When the technology is proven profitable and demand from the feed market exists, the industry partners in Foods of Norway can easily scale up to commercial production."

Foods of Norway is working to develop microbial ingredients such as yeast from blue and green biomass by using new technology, and to determine how these affect growth, physiology, health and product quality of Atlantic salmon and traditional livestock animals.

Microbial products, particularly yeast, are potential sustainable ingredients in aquafeeds and feeds for terrestrial animals due to the ability to convert low-value non-food biomass from forestry and agricultural industry into high-value feed with limited dependence on arable land, water and changing climatic conditions.

"Our respective research interest in alternative functional protein sources and yeast is an obvious connection. We have followed the progress of Foods of Norway since the start of the programme and we have contributed by producing, for this project, industrial-scale volumes of our Cyberlindnera jadinii strain fermented with sugars obtained from lignocellulosic biomass of Norway spruce trees (Picea abies)," said Lallemand's Castex.

"We hope our input, combined with existing and new members, will help achieve the consortium objective: to turn Norwegian natural resources into valuable alternative proteins and dietary bioactives for the Norwegian feed industry."

- Lallemand