BioBoost newsletter June 2018
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Invitation: Seminar "circular business" Thursday 21st of June
The horticultural sector produces large quantities of vegetable waste and unsaleable fruit and vegetables. These waste streams can form the basis for new applications and products that can generate extra income. Consider packaging material from tomato stems, insect breeding on waste streams and valorisation of fruit press fibers to new food or beauty products.
During the seminar "Agro-food waste streams: from cost to source of income" on Thursday 21st of June some entrepreneurs come and tell their success story in the bio-based economy with waste streams. The BioBoost project investigates the circular economy. The partners will explain their research. Participation is free but registration is obliged. Please register via this form.
Insect symposium: “Edible Insects: The Value Chain”
The symposium “Edible Insects: The Value Chain” was held on 21 and 22 March 2018 in Ede, The Netherlands and organized by Wageningen University in collaboration with NGN and Venik. The symposium was dedicated to 10 years of insects research in the Netherlands. During the symposium, several themes were discussed such as: insect breeding, processing of insects, but also the use of insects in Food and Feed. The opinion of the consumer was very important for this symposium, both in European territory and beyond.
Partner in the Bioboost project Inagro was present at this symposium. Inagro presented the research possibilities of the practical centre for insect breeding and the objectives of projects including Bioboost. Inagro illustrated his with concrete research results about the influence of the substrate and the density of black soldier fly larvae on the feed conversion ratio.
At the symposium were a total of 170 people present who are interested in insects breeding from all over the world, including from South Africa, Russia and Latvia. This created a wide variety of presentations with very fascinating discussions.
EC plans ban on single-use plastic products – opportunity for biobased economy
The European Commission wants to get rid of disposable plastics, according to a plan that is presented on 23 May.
European Commissioner Frans Timmermans had announced this already in his speech for the Circular Economy Stakeholder Conference on 20 February this year. That is why there may be a ban on, among others, straws, cleaning wipes, food packaging and plastic swabs. Alternatives for these disposable plastic products could be made from paper, wood or biodegradable plastics. And certainly this last category offers opportunities for the biobased economy; if the fossil product is banned, the business case of the biobased alternative often changes favourably.
Research on more value out of tomato crop residues
On 4 December 2017 project partners, ILVO and INAGRO visited Renewi to explore together possibilities to gain more value out of tomato crop residues. One of the problems today is the contamination with ropes and clips that complicates further processing. Important steps forward were made in the search for bio-degradable, in this case, compostable ropes and clips. Composting is successful. At this moment the pollution of the rope fibre prevents the use in the paper industry. Also discussed were possible alternative valorisation routes, taking into account the challenges linked to this type of residual stream. A visit was also made to the composting installations on site.
AB InBev makes beer draff suitable for human nutrition
AB InBev has developed a nutrient-rich breakfast drink based on dry grain residues from brewing beer. So far, that draff mainly used by farmers as feed for their cattle. The breakfast drink is already on sale in the US and might also be launched in Europe. The technology was developed in AB InBev's Global Innovaton & Technology Center in Leuven, where a team also develops other food products develops on the basis of these leftover grains.
Black Soldier Fly changes residual waste in food
According to the Belgian Federal Agency Economy about 4.5 million tonnes of vegetable waste is produced annually. This is a great potential source for the cultivation of the Black Soldier Fly. This can easily convert residual waste of arable land, catering, supermarket and convert to useful manure, animal proteins.
Belgian Millibeter grows salmon with fly larvae
Wild salmon eat fish and shrimps, but soon the first salmon grown with larvae of black soldier flies will lay on your plate. The flies are the workhorses of the Turnhout company Millibeter, who grows larvae with residual streams such as potato peels and beet pulp. The black soldier fly plays an important role in the shift to a more sustainable fishing industry. The insects serve as an alternative to fish meal and soybean meal with which fish such as salmon, trout and Pike-perch in aquaculture are grown. "Ecologically it is already, now economically it has to be more attractive", says Johan Jacobs, founder of Millibeter.
Number of organisazions active in Biobased Economy grows
A growing number of organizations is active in the Biobased Economy. This is shown by the annual monitoring of the National Entrepreneurial Netherlands (RVO.nl). Both industry and the Government invest greatly in renewable raw materials.
Update about our privacy notice
The EU General Data Protection Regulation (more affectionately known as "GDPR") is effective from May 25, 2018. As a part of our effort to ensure that we meet the requirements of the GDPR* we've improved our Privacy Notice. To review our Privacy Notice, just click here. We'd like to keep you informed about updates and the latest news of the BioBoost project. If you, for any reason, do not want to receive this newsletter anymore, you can always unsubscribe via the link below.
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