CIPROMED - Circular and inclusive utilisation of alternative proteins in the mediterranean value chains

Current European agricultural production systems are heavily dependent on protein imports to cover mainly the nutritional needs of livestock animals and farmed fish, but also additional needs for human consumption. Indicatively, the EU together with Norway and Switzerland, is the second largest importer of soy after China, with most quantities to be imported from Brazil, Argentina and US. The dependency of European agri-food systems on imports of the main protein sources renders them unstable and unprotected from major disruptions of the different channels in the supply chain, as it has been proven during the pandemic crisis. This situation is especially valid for the Mediterranean Region, where drought and ecological deficits are worsening the self-sufficiency of traditional protein supply chains. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the EU, and in particular for the Mediterranean Basin based countries for efficient, viable and locally produced alternative protein sources.

The ability of agricultural production systems to rely on locally produced resources can increase their stability, as well as their resilience after adverse and unforeseen events that disrupt the global supply chains. Most agricultural farming systems produce a huge amount of livestock and crop residues, as well as a variety of side-streams. On a yearly basis, it is estimated that 27% of our agricultural production is lost, which corresponds to 1.6 billion tons on a global basis, valued at 750 billion US$ annually. Similarly, one-third of all food produced for human consumption is either lost or wasted. These losses represent a big pool of untapped and underrated resources. CIPROMED aims to apply, validate and scale up an integrated array of processes, recovering a significant amount of proteins from agri-industrial side-streams (e.g., brewer’s spent grain, oilseed presscakes), protein fractions of insects, microalgae and legume biomass, whilst fermentative sources will successfully enhance the availability of alternative proteins. The recovered protein concentrates will subsequently be integrated with animal production and aquaculture, but will also be used directly for human consumption. The integration of insects, microalgae, agri-industrial streams and legumes in food and feed will be based on circular economy attributes, along with a wide range of Life-Cycle-proved economically and environmentally sustainable extraction, modification and formulation techniques. The resulting high-value proteins of the novel food and feed items will be extensively tested on different realistic “real-world” systems through feeding trials but also human intervention studies.

Insect farming has attracted a lot of scientific and commercial interest during the last decade, since insects are considered as a promising alternative nutrient source that can be exploited for animal feed, as well as for human consumption. Similarly, recent data indicate that certain legume plants such as lupins and faba beans, which were until recently poorly investigated, are not only rich in proteins but can be extremely promising sources for food and feed, especially after modification and adjustments of their functionalities to the consumer preferences and needs. One additional excellent protein source with a valuable nutritional amino acid profile is microalgal protein. Microalgae can grow autotrophically using sunlight energy and inorganic nutrients, as well as flue gases as a carbon source, thus sequestering CO2 and avoiding its release into the atmosphere. They can also grow heterotrophically or mixotrophically using organic carbon sources from agri-food residues. Finally, fermentation that can be used to form and manipulate protein functionality is the emerging technology in the protein supply chain, with tremendous options for mass production through utilisation of agri-food residues and is perfectly adapted to provide operational circular economy attributes. In this context, CIPROMED aims to reduce the risk for the Mediterranean countries of being dependent on imported protein sources and will help the participating countries to rely more on locally produced nutrient sources. To achieve this goal, CIPROMED aims to adjust novel protein production to the unique Mediterranean conditions, creating a new, socio-economically feasible and environmentally sustainable alternative protein value chain and production system located in Mediterranean countries.