The poultry meat market leader Wiesenhof wants to feed insect meal to his animals in the future - and so reduce the soy content in the feed. "Our goal is to avoid the addition of soy in our poultry feed as much as possible in the future," said the head of the Wiesenhof parent company PHW, Peter Wesjohann.
In protein from insects the company sees a suitable alternative. However, it is not foreseeable "when exactly we can replace soy in poultry feed with insect proteins." But it is important to set the course now.
So far, the use of insect meal in animal feed is prohibited because of EU regulations dating back to the BSE crisis at the turn of the millennium. Through its Canadian partner Enterra, PHW has therefore applied to the EU Commission for approval of insect meal in poultry and pig feed.
Wiesenhof hopes that these rules will be relaxed. Then could serve as an alternative source of energy, for example, the soldier fly: their larvae attracts the company Enterra on food waste. The insects convert the nutrients of the waste into protein and fat and are then ground. "From two kilograms of food waste, we can win a kilogram of insects flour," said Wesjohann the "NOZ". PHW has been working with Enterra since August 2018.
The cultivation of soybeans has come under criticism against the background of extensive clearing in the rainforest of South America. The PHW Group currently feeds 240,000 tonnes of soybean meal to chickens per year.
