We’re far from it being common knowledge, but what happens to the parts of animals we don’t eat — bones, blood, offal, feathers — is shaping the future of food systems across Europe and beyond.
Understanding Processed Animal Proteins: Not What You Think
Let’s be clear about this: PAA isn’t ground-up roadkill or mystery meat tossed into your chicken feed. It’s a regulated product, produced under controlled industrial conditions, from animal materials that were never intended for human plates — think slaughterhouse trimmings, inedible organs, or surplus from fish processing. These materials undergo rigorous heat treatment, sterilization, and drying to eliminate pathogens. The result? A protein-rich powder used primarily in animal feed — especially for aquaculture, poultry, and pigs.
And that’s exactly where people don’t think about this enough: most of the meat we eat comes from animals that were themselves fed on by-products we’d rather not picture. There’s irony in how squeamish we are about PAA while casually ordering chicken nuggets without a second thought.
Processed Animal Proteins are not a new invention. They’ve been around since the 19th century, originally called “tankage” — a term that sounds as grim as it looks. But after the BSE (mad cow disease) crisis in the 1990s, which was linked to contaminated meat-and-bone meal in cattle feed, the EU banned most forms of PAA in farm animal diets. The ban wasn’t blanket — it varied by species and source — but it froze innovation for nearly two decades.
Where Do PAA Sources Come From?
Not all PAA is created equal. The EU classifies them into categories based on origin. Category 1 includes high-risk material like animals that died on farms or were culled during disease outbreaks — these are typically turned into industrial fats or destroyed. Category 2 covers lower-risk by-products: manure, spoiled carcasses, or condemned meat from slaughterhouses. Category 3 is the most relevant for food systems: it’s from healthy animals slaughtered for human consumption but includes parts we don’t eat.
So when a salmon in Norway is fed insect-based PAA, or a French pig gets a supplement made from pork blood, it’s Category 3 material — processed, sterilized, and legally traceable.
The Role of Rendering Plants
These facilities are the unsung heroes of the PAA chain. Rendering involves cooking raw animal by-products at high temperatures (typically 133°C for at least 20 minutes under pressure) to separate fat from protein. The solid residue becomes meat-and-bone meal; the liquid, after purification, turns into tallow or gelatin. This process kills bacteria, viruses, and prions — the misfolded proteins behind diseases like BSE.
It’s a bit like pressure-canning stew, except scaled up to industrial levels and stripped of any culinary appeal.
How PAA Is Changing Sustainable Agriculture
Circular food systems are all the rage now — reducing waste, reusing resources, closing loops. But we’re still terrible at applying that logic to animal products. Globally, about 30% of the weight of a slaughtered cow ends up as by-products. In the U.S., that’s over 10 million tons annually. In the EU, rendering plants recover about 85% of eligible material, but not all of it becomes PAA. Some becomes pet food, fertilizer, or biofuels.
And yet, we import millions of tons of soybean meal every year to feed livestock — 70% of global soy goes to animal feed — much of it from deforested areas in Brazil. That’s where PAA becomes a game-changer: replacing imported plant proteins with locally sourced animal proteins cuts emissions, transport costs, and land-use pressure.
A 2022 study from Wageningen University found that replacing 25% of soy in poultry feed with black soldier fly larvae (a form of PAA) reduced the carbon footprint by 18% — and improved feed conversion ratios. That’s not marginal. That’s meaningful.
But here’s the catch: EU law still restricts PAA use in ruminant feed (cattle, sheep), out of lingering caution. Poultry and pigs? Allowed, under strict conditions. Fish? Since 2013, processed insect proteins can be used in aquaculture — a major shift, considering that salmon farming in Scotland or Norway relies heavily on feed imports.
Because we keep treating animal by-products like waste instead of resources, we miss low-hanging fruit in the sustainability race.
Insect-Based PAA: The Rising Star
You might not like the idea of maggots in your food chain — but black soldier fly larvae are quietly revolutionizing PAA. These insects feed on organic waste — expired fruits, brewery grains, food scraps — then get dried and processed into high-protein meal. One ton of larvae can consume 10 tons of waste in two weeks. Companies like Ynsect in France and InnovaFeed in France/Canada are scaling this fast: Ynsect’s facility in northern France aims to produce 200,000 tons annually by 2025.
And the nutritional profile? Roughly 60% protein, 25% fat, plus calcium and amino acids — perfect for fish and poultry. Even better: insect farming uses far less land and water than soy or fishmeal production.
Fishmeal vs. Terrestrial PAA
For decades, aquaculture has relied on fishmeal — ground-up small fish like anchovies caught in Peruvian waters. But overfishing has made this unsustainable. About 20 million tons of wild fish are used annually for feed, contributing to ecosystem collapse. Replacing even 30% of fishmeal with insect- or poultry-based PAA could relieve that pressure significantly.
Except that consumer perception lags behind science. “Insect-fed salmon” sounds dystopian to some, while “wild-caught fishmeal” sounds natural — even if it’s driving marine depletion.
Regulations and Risks: Why Trust Is Limited
The BSE crisis wasn’t just a health disaster — it was a trust bomb. Between 1990 and 2001, over 180,000 cattle in the UK were diagnosed with mad cow disease. Hundreds of people died from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, linked to eating contaminated beef. The source? Meat-and-bone meal fed to cattle that contained infected nervous tissue.
Which explains why the EU took a scorched-earth approach: banning most PAA in farm animal feed, imposing traceability rules, and classifying materials by risk level. Since 2001, only non-ruminant PAA can be fed to non-ruminants — no cows eating beef, for example. Cross-contamination is monitored like a crime scene.
Yet, despite tighter controls, skepticism lingers. A 2023 Eurobarometer survey found that 63% of respondents distrusted the safety of animal by-products in feed — even when labeled as “non-food grade.”
Is that fear justified today? Data is still lacking on long-term effects, though surveillance programs show no BSE cases linked to compliant PAA since 2007. Experts disagree on whether current safeguards are enough — or if we’ve overcorrected.
And that’s the problem: we demand zero risk, but agriculture isn’t a sterile lab. So what’s the real danger — outdated policies holding back progress, or premature relaxation inviting another crisis?
Alternatives to PAA: What’s Really Viable?
Let’s cut through the noise: are there realistic substitutes for PAA? Plant proteins like soy and peas are the obvious answer — but they come with land-use, water, and import dependency issues. Algae and fungi (like mycoprotein) are promising but not scalable yet. Lab-grown proteins? Still too expensive — current production costs exceed $2,000 per kilogram.
So the real competition isn’t between PAA and alternatives — it’s between PAA and imported soy. And when you factor in transport emissions, deforestation, and supply chain fragility, locally processed PAA often wins on environmental metrics.
That said, not all PAA is equal. Insect-based is cleaner than poultry-based, which is cleaner than older forms of meat-and-bone meal. So the question isn’t “PAA or not?” — it’s “which kind of PAA, under what controls?”
Plant Proteins: The Soy Dilemma
Europe imports over 30 million tons of soy annually — 90% used in animal feed. Most comes from South America, where 1.5 hectares of rainforest are lost every minute, partly due to agricultural expansion. Even certified “deforestation-free” soy struggles with traceability gaps. Replacing just 10% of that with insect PAA could save 3 million hectares by 2030 — roughly the size of Belgium.
Synthetic and Fermented Proteins
Companies like Air Protein and Solar Foods are making protein from air and electricity — using microbes to convert CO2 into edible biomass. It sounds like sci-fi, and in many ways, it is. Pilot plants exist, but commercial output remains below 1,000 tons/year globally. Costs? Still above $100/kg. We’re far from it replacing PAA at scale.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can PAA Be Used in Human Food?
No — not directly. PAA is strictly for animal feed. Some derived products, like gelatin or collagen, are used in human food (gummy bears, capsules), but they undergo further purification. The term “PAA” itself refers to feed-grade materials, not consumable ingredients.
Is Insect-Based PAA Safe for Animals?
Extensive trials say yes. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) approved black soldier fly larvae for salmon feed in 2017, then for poultry in 2021. No adverse effects were found at inclusion rates up to 7% in feed. Some studies even report improved gut health in chickens.
Why Can’t Cows Eat PAA?
Because of the BSE legacy. Even though today’s controls are strict, the EU maintains a ban on feeding any animal protein to ruminants. Some researchers argue it’s time to revise this for certain low-risk PAA, like insect meal, but political resistance remains high.
The Bottom Line
I find this overrated — the idea that we can build sustainable food systems without confronting our discomfort with animal by-products. PAA isn’t a silver bullet, but it’s a tool we’re ignoring at our peril. The circular economy isn’t just about recycling plastic bottles; it’s about using every part of the animal, safely and intelligently.
Honestly, it is unclear whether public opinion will catch up with science. But the data is moving in one direction: well-regulated, species-specific PAA reduces environmental harm, cuts waste, and strengthens food sovereignty. We don’t need to love it. We just need to accept it.
Because pretending our food chain is clean and bloodless helps no one — especially not the planet.