Tyson Foods Scales Up Investment In Insect Protein Maker For Global Food Chain

The “fact checkers” went nuts to shame people for jumping to conclusions about Tyson’s partnership with Protix to get into the insect craze. Tyson will build plants here to produce insect food to feed genetically modified insects, which will be fed to animals. No mention of Protix’s statement, “We believe that feeding the growing world population should go hand in hand with protecting our beautiful planet.”

From the Protix website:

Protix is the world leader in insect ingredients. We believe that feeding the growing world population should go hand in hand with protecting our beautiful planet. A huge challenge! Fortunately, the solution lies in nature itself: insects provide low-footprint proteins and other nutrients that can be processed into more sustainable feed and food.

Tyson has contracted with Protix to build plants here but notably has also made a “direct equity investment” and “minority stake” in Protix to help the company grow.

Protix founder Kees Aarts says that they plan insect-based food for humans: “They recently launched ENOUGH, a range of insect-based snacks and culinary ingredients. There is a wealth of flavors to be discovered, he says.”

So is Tyson getting into growing bugs for human consumption or not?

“Fact checkers” apparently don’t one end of the story from another. Maybe eating insects does that to you. — Technocracy News & Trends Editor Patrick Wood

Posted By: Staff via Various Sources

Press release from Tyson

Tyson Foods, Inc. (NYSE: TSN), one of the world’s largest food companies, has reached an agreement for a two-fold investment with Protix, the leading global insect ingredients company. The strategic investment will support the growth of the emerging insect ingredient industry and expand the use of insect ingredient solutions to create more efficient sustainable proteins and lipids for use in the global food system. The agreement combines Tyson Foods’ global scale, experience and network with Protix’s technology and market leadership to meet current market demand and scale production of insect ingredients.

Through a direct equity investment, Tyson Foods will acquire a minority stake in Protix to help fund its global expansion. In addition, Tyson Foods and Protix have entered a joint venture for the operation and construction of an insect ingredient facility in the continental United States. Upon completion, it will be the first at-scale facility of its kind to upcycle food manufacturing byproducts into high-quality insect proteins and lipids which will primarily be used in the pet food, aquaculture, and livestock industries.

“Our partnership with Protix represents the latest strategic investment by Tyson Foods in groundbreaking solutions that drive added value to Tyson Foods’ business,” said John R. Tyson, chief financial officer of Tyson Foods. “The insect lifecycle provides the opportunity for full circularity within our value chain, strengthening our commitment to building a more sustainable food system for the future.”

Kees Aarts, CEO of Protix, says: “We are very excited to announce the next step in our international growth strategy. Tyson Foods’ and Protix’s strategic partnership advances our joint work towards creating high-quality, more sustainable protein using innovative technology and solutions. Moreover, we can immediately use their existing byproducts as feedstock for our insects. This agreement is a major milestone for Protix and significantly accelerates our ambition to grow through international partnerships.”

The to-be-built facility in the U.S. will house an enclosed system to support all aspects of insect protein production including the breeding, incubating, and hatching of insect larvae. In addition to ingredients for the aquaculture and pet food industries, processed larvae may also be used as ingredients within livestock and plant feed.

Protix is a fully integrated insect ingredients company, producing and processing 14,000 metric tons LLE annually in its Netherlands facility which has been in operation since 2019. It serves major global companies in the pet food, aquaculture feed, livestock feed and organic fertilizer industries as the demand for insect ingredients continues to grow.

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Press release from Protix

We proudly announce a strategic partnership with Tyson Foods, one of the world’s largest food companies. A major milestone for Protix and the insect industry! We are proud of this partnership which includes the formation of a joint venture for the construction of an insect ingredient facility in the United States. On top of this, Tyson Foods is investing in Protix to speed up our global expansion plans.

The strategic investment will support the growth of the emerging insect ingredient industry and expand the use of insect ingredient solutions to create more efficient sustainable proteins and lipids for use in the global food system.

This agreement is a major milestone for Protix and significantly accelerates our ambition to grow our global gross revenue to around €1bn by 2035 through international partnerships.

Collaboration is in our DNA and we specifically seek out partnerships that maximise our impact. With Tyson Foods, we are able to accelerate our mission to bring food systems back into balance with nature.

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Tyson Foods, one of the biggest meat producers, is investing in insect protein

Tyson, a major US producer of beef, pork and chicken, is betting on protein that comes from insects.

The meat processor said on Tuesday that it has invested in Protix, a Netherlands-based insect ingredients maker. Tyson is not only taking a minority stake in the company, but is working alongside it to build a US factory. That facility will use animal waste to feed black soldier flies, which will then be turned into food for pets, poultry and fish. Tyson did not disclose the financial specifics of the deal.

Those flies are not going into human food, at this point. “Today, we’re focused on more of [an] ingredient application with insect protein than we are a consumer application,” said John R. Tyson, chief financial officer of Tyson Foods.

Insect protein, long hailed as a sustainable food source, hasn’t caught on in the mainstream. But in recent years, interest in insects as ingredients for animal food has been growing.

A 2021 report from Rabobank noted that “the demand for insect protein, mainly as an animal feed and pet food ingredient, could reach half a million metric tons by 2030, up from today’s market of approximately 10,000 metric tons.” That year, Mars launched a line of cat food made from insects, called LoveBug.

The Springdale, Arkansas-based Tyson doesn’t make pet food, but it does sell its animal byproducts for use in the pet food and aquaculture market, which feeds fish, the CFO said. Byproducts like animal fats, hides and inedible proteins, if not used or reduced, can end up in landfills. In this case, Tyson can send what’s in the stomach of cattle it has processed to a Protix facility, where it’s fed to insects. For the company, creating a larger market for this type of waste can not only reduce waste but offer a larger revenue stream.

A business opportunity

“One feature of being in the animal protein business is having to figure out … how to derive value from” waste, Tyson said. “We saw this as an extension of our existing business,” he said of the collaboration with Protix, adding that the insect ingredient market has “really attractive growth characteristics that would accelerate Tyson.”

The market for insect ingredients is “definitely growing at what I would think is an exponential speed,” said Christine Johanna Picard, a professor of biology at the Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis School of Science. Picard helped create the Center for Environmental Sustainability through Insect Farming, a partnership between academia and industry members including Tyson and Protix.

“There are more and more startups coming into the space because there’s so much demand for insect protein,” she said.

Partnering with Tyson will help Protix scale up, noted Kees Aarts, the company’s CEO. “These partnerships are really needed to bring solutions like ours onto a global stage,” he said.

Why bugs are better for the planet

The meat industry places a large burden on the planet, in part because of the land, water and energy it takes to grow crops that feed the animals we eat. Some experts say that reducing the environmental footprint of animal feed can help make the system more sustainable.

Making food out of insects is one way to do that: Bugs take up less space and subsist on waste that would otherwise be discarded.

The black soldier fly, “can grow on almost every type of food waste and byproduct you can imagine,” Aarts said.

That waste management is a big part of why insects can help ease the burden placed by cattle and other animals on the planet, said Reza Ovissipour, an assistant professor in sustainable food systems at Texas A&M University’s department of food science and technology.

The flies eat waste from different types of animals and convert them into “a specific product, which is going to be the protein or fat from the insects,” he said. “Once you’re dealing with this specific protein and fat, then you can easily formulate your diet for animals.”

When insects eat animal waste, they are essentially serving as “mini bioreactors,” he said. “And these mini bioreactors, they are very inexpensive,” he said. “You don’t need to apply that much energy. It’s very sustainable.”

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Sourced from Technocracy News & Trends

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