F3 Challenge competitor AgriProtein continues to be a big player on the alternative fish feed scene by innovating insect-based technologies to upcycle nutrients from food waste and agricultural by-products. AgriProtein is the world’s largest supplier of insect meal to-date with a capacity of 2,000 tons a year, and in partnership with Christof Industries have developed a standard 250 tons per day plant.
The F3 “Fish-Free Feed” Challenge was a 16-month sales contest completed in 2017 to replace fishmeal in aquafeed with alternative ingredients.
“Our participation in the F3 Challenge helped our business goals by providing insight into the alternative aquaculture feed ingredient space, and allowing us to focus on markets where we can make the biggest impact,” says AgriProtein Cofounder and CEO Jason Drew.
AgriProtein is taking something that most consider waste and turning it into a valuable product, a high quality protein made from black soldier fly larvae called MagMeal™, which will help solve the global challenge of feeding our planet’s growing population. They opened their first commercial scale factory in 2015 and soon after announced plans to build factories in North America, Europe, Asia, South Africa and the Middle East.
Since the contest ended, the company has seen continued interest and investment in their alternative protein and oil ingredients, including through a recent record-breaking $105 million fundraise, securing the largest investment to date in the insect protein sector. They also continue to receive sales inquiries daily. AgriProtein was also named one of the world’s 50 most innovative companies by Time Magazine, along with companies like Amazon, Apple and Google.
“In the coming decades, the black soldier fly will become as important as the honeybee in our agricultural system in helping us meet the growing food demand,” says Jason Drew. “By putting insects back into the role they have played for millions of years, we will help preserve marine environments by reducing the pressure for fish meal and providing a high quality protein for farmed fish that we consume.”
As they see it, roughly 40 percent of all the food that is produced gets thrown away. If AgriProtein could upcycle these discarded foods into our protein and oil products, they could dramatic reduce our pressure on wild caught biomass for fishmeal and eliminate the harmful greenhouse gases produced by the decomposition of organic wastes in landfill. Agriprotein’s upcycled proteins from insect meal have also replaced fishmeal.
The F3 Challenge is a series of incentive prizes to replace fishmeal and fish oil with alternative “fish-free” ingredients to support the growth of aquaculture despite fluctuations and impending demise of wild forage fish stocks, which is forecasted by 2037 under business-as-usual scenarios. Learn more about Agriprotein at: https://agriprotein.com/
AgriProtein is spearheading the new industry of nutrient recycling to make sustainable and natural protein by mimicking nature and using insect based technology. Re-purposing and re-using old plastics and glass is commonplace, but little progress has been made in eliminating organics from landfills. This is crucial when considering the considerable environmental impact. Not only does the company provide an innovative and less expensive method for reducing waste in landfills by 35,000 m 3 per year for each factory, but the organic waste is processed into an animal feed, oil, and organic fertilizer. The AgriProtein process allows for organic waste to be turned into valuable and sustainable products to replace fishmeal as a natural source of protein in industrial farming operations with a hugely positive environmental impact.