Circular and low carbon footprint feed
There is an increasing focus in the European feed industry on the use of “circular feed” as a key performance indicator of sustainable feed production. This is also a main factor of importance in sustainable livestock production, considering feed sourcing and production carry the majority share of the impacts, in particular in pig and poultry production. FEFAC, representing the European Feed Manufacturers’ Association, made a publication in 2022 on Circular Feed, describing the conceptual approach and providing a large range of examples. Former foodstuffs are one of the circular feed examples mentioned, thereby making the sector EFFPA represent of key importance in the ambition to increase the sustainability of feed and livestock production. At the same time, the use of former foodstuffs in feed also reflects positively on the circularity of food production, considering the residual flows are maintained in the food chain and not destined to waste.


Because former foodstuffs destined for animal feed are a by-product of food production, they also carry a low carbon and environmental footprint. The PEFCR Feed for Food-Producing Animals is the methodology that describes how the footprint in compound feed production should be measured. The footprint of a feed material is underpinned by economic allocation. This means that the (very) low economic value of former foodstuffs sold as feed compared to their value on the food market is translated into a low footprint.
The EFFPA members BFAN (Germany), UKFFPA (UK) and VIDO (NL) have successfully submitted datasets on the footprint of several processed former foodstuff products to the GFLI Database, which is the global reference for carbon and environmental footprint data on commonly used feed ingredients. Operators with access to the GFLI database can use these datasets in their feed formulation strategies to assess the reduction impact when replacing nutritionally equivalent feed ingredients (typically a grain like wheat or maize, plus a fat-based ingredient like palm oil) with processed former foodstuffs.