This Nice start-up won the World Innovation Competition with an ingenious way of revolutionising animal feed.
Each year we produce upwards of 995 million tonnes of meat and fish for our consumption (463 of poultry, 253 of pork, 201 of beef, 35 of fish). But how to feed the animals that we eat today and tomorrow, with the world's population estimated to hit 9.8 billion by 2050? The food industry uses proteins to boost animal growth, including cereal meals (rape-seed, soya, corn etc.) and fishmeal. But producing those poses numerous environmental problems, as in intensive use of increasingly limited arable land and the threat to marine diversity given that you need to take 4kg of fish from the sea in order to make 1kg of fishmeal! Inalve has developed a truly innovative solution for animal feed, based on microalgae. “The proteins in these microscopic organisms represent a so-far unexploited natural resource,” explains Christophe Vasseur, Inalve's president and cofounder with Hubert Bonnefond. “Their nutritional value is unequalled, making them a perfect substitute for fishmeal. In partnership with the CNRS, Inria, UPMC and Centrale Supelec, we've spent two years in the Villefranche-sur-Mer oceanographic laboratory developing a means of producing microalgae biofilm and a microalgae meal; they're outstanding in that they contain all the amino acids required for animal development.” By 2020 a pilot production plant should be up and running in Nice, able to deliver 10 tonnes a year, so increasing by a third France's present production of 20 tonnes.
Par Alexandre Benoist
Côteweb 2021, création de site Internet sur Nice