Circular food waste becomes food again

The project goal is to produce quality-assured food waste to produce feed for fish and poultry. Focus is on utilizing food waste, which is 1.2 million tonnes/year in Sweden. The waste ladder is adopted in the Swedish Environmental Code.

It governs how waste is to be handled in order to optimize the use of potential resources.Today, food waste goes either to biogas or to incineration, both of which are far down the waste ladder.

Only 3% goes to the higher value animal feed.The project wants to increase the opportunities to use food waste to grow mealworms and larvae from the soldier fly.

The insects contribute to the circular food system through the reuse of food waste for insects with a high protein content that is well suited for feed. The problem is that current regulations are adapted for linear and non-circular systems.

The project will review the regulations and have the opportunity to simplify the use of food waste for insect production for a high-quality feed. The entire chain must be quality assured by creating full traceability. This requires thorough knowledge of the risks that are achieved by using the project´s data from the research results.

Computer models are built with a focus on large-scale using blockchain technology.

In order to be able to manage risks in the event of incidents, a system is needed that works for circular, quality-assured products. The results contribute to the goal of further developing the regulations for circular management of food waste.