Methane-reduced beef trial in Sweden “sold out in less than a week”
A “unique pilot” was launched at the end of last month at Coop supermarkets in Sweden. From 30 June, methane-reduced beef was presented to Swedish customers under the LOME (‘Low on Methane’) brand.
The commercial pilot project was the result of a collaboration between Coop together with the protein supplier Protos and the feed biotechnology startup Volta Greentech. The companies revealed that LOME will be sold for a limited time in selected stores, with 500 grams of ground beef available for SEK 59. This can be compared with 500 g of standard minced 12% fat, which is sold for SEK 56.5, according to prices published on Coop’s website. At the same time, other ‘selected parts’ of the cow – such as sirloin steak and beef fillet – were released and sold in Coop’s meat counters.
“This is a project that is really at the forefront of food technology and the transition to a more sustainable food chain,”says Charlotta Szczepanowski, head of sustainability and quality at Coop Sweden. Szczepanowski claimed that retail is the “first in the world” to offer “our customers and members a unique product in our stores” while continuing to “support Swedish food production”.
And the concept, it seems, has proven to be a hit with Swedish consumers. “LOME was perceived very well and sold out in almost all stores in less than a week,”Volta Greentech’s CEO Fredrik Åkerman reflected.
LOME innovation responds to the methane challenge
Methane is 84 times stronger than carbon dioxide over a 20-year time horizon, according to the IPCC. Although the gas only stays in the atmosphere for about nine years, it is responsible for almost a quarter of global warming.
Methane emissions linked to gastric fermentation from cattle account for 5.7% of Sweden’s total greenhouse gas emissions and constitute the majority of the country’s methane emissions. Sweden was one of 100 signatories to the Methane Promise agreed at COP26, which sets the target of 30% methane reduction by 2030. Managing methane emissions from cattle is therefore an important challenge if Sweden is to achieve its climate goals.
In response to this challenge, Sweden’s food industry is renewing to reduce its greenhouse gas footprint from animal husbandry. LOME’s launch in Coop marked the “final phase” of a methane reduction experiment conducted by Volta Greentech, Protos and Coop on Gotland.
The work, which started in 2022, uses Volta Greentech’s “100% natural” feed supplements for cattle. Volta Seafeed is based on the species red algae Asparagopsis, Grown on land at Volta’s pilot plant in Lysekil.
As part of the project, ten bulls on Ejmund’s farm on Gotland receive Volta Seafeed as part of their daily feed for three consecutive months before slaughter. The study tested different ways of feeding the animals and some concerned over 90% methane reduction, with an average reduction for the period of about 80%.
– The effectiveness of reducing methane emissions from cows that provide red seaweed supplementation is linked to the dosing and dosing schedule. In the pilot, we evaluated which dose and dosing interval gave the best effect. We found a good strategy that gave us an average methane reduction of 92%. As far as we know, there are no other products that can achieve this level of methane reduction.Volta Greentech’s CEO told FoodNavigator.
New methods for “smoothly integrating” the feed into the farm’s daily work were discovered during the study, which will make it easier for more farms to implement the same solution in the future, the companies said.
The feed supplement can be used for both dairy and cattle, even though the feed technology startup is launching its commercialization strategy in the meat sector.
Regarding the impact on human nutrition, Åkerman explained: “The product has been shown to be safe for both animals and humans from a health perspective … The meat’s nutritional profile is not affected by feeding cows with seaweed supplement. For dairy products, we have seen an increase in iodine in milk because iodine is naturally present in seaweed when it grown in seawater. “.
Scale up sustainable feed supplements
“The results of the study have exceeded our expectations,”Thomas Östlund, CEO of Protos, reflected.
He believes that the experiment points to a more climate-friendly future for meat production. “This paves the way for future Swedish meat production, with the right production method we show that meat is a high-quality food even from a climate point of view. ”CEO enthusiastic.
The companies have already started planning for the future launch of additional products, it was revealed. So, how quickly can we expect methane-reduced beef to become a mainstay of meat counters in Sweden?
Some obstacles to adoption remain.
Although the addition of the feed supplement has an impact on the farm’s production costs – Åkerman said he could not share the pricing “at this stage” – the feed technology company is optimistic that this cost will not be unaffordable for large-scale use. “It will always cost to reduce methane emissions. However, we work with the beef processors and food retailers to ensure that it is a good investment for the farmer who uses our feed supplement to reduce emissions. In studies, we have seen increased animal productivity when feeding seaweed to reduce methane emissions, but it is too early to put a dollar value on it. More data is needed for productivity increases,we were told.
When it comes to expanding the initiative, Åkerman believes that Volta Greentech’s own capacity is probably one of the biggest interruptions that slows down the expansion. “Our production of seaweed is the bottleneck when scaling up to reduce emissions. The focus now is on expanding production. ”he revealed. Volta is now building the world’s first commercial land-based red algae cultivation plant alongside its pilot plant in Lysekil on Sweden’s west coast.
“Now we have made a complete proof of concept, all the way from producing high quality seaweed in a controlled environment in our land-based seaweed factory in Sweden, to feeding the seaweed as a complement to cows on Ejmund’s farm, to reducing 80-90% of methane emissions from their beef cattle, to then sell the low-methane-poor beef in Swedish supermarkets,”Åkerman reflected. “The algae have proven to be extremely effective in reducing methane emissions from cows … We plan to sharply increase production in 2023-24 to be able to feed even more cows. “.