Multinational food company Danone has teamed up with innovative Japanese company Ajinomoto to work on cutting emissions generated from dairy farming.
As part of the strategic partnership, Ajinomoto will provide Danone with a high-performance food supplement for cows that can reduce emissions from belching and waste by about 10%.
Currently, the two partners are working on introducing the solution to farmers contracted by Danone in Spain, Brazil, and the United States, as well as to Danone’s own farmers in Egypt and Morocco.
Ajinomoto has developed the AjiPro®-L additive that delivers an essential amino acid called lysine to the cow’s digestive system, where it gets absorbed as a nutrient. This supplement helps maintain a regular milk production rate, and it provides a cost-effective alternative to conventional soybean meal for cows, which is high in protein and amino acids.
When combined with additives intended to reduce the methane from cow belching, the AjiPro®-L is said to boost the methane reduction effect by approximately 30%.
According to the Japanese company, this product can significantly reduce feed costs for farmers while simultaneously addressing a wide range of supply chain emissions generated from this industry.
In a statement, Sumio Maeda, Executive Officer & VP, General Manager, Bio & Fine Chemicals Division at Ajinomoto, commented, “Leveraging our expertise in amino acids, we developed the AjiPro®-L solution to help reduce feed costs and GHG emissions not only for our partners but for the entire dairy and beef industry.”
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“We are committed to mitigating negative impacts and expanding positive ones through strategies in line with our purpose of contributing to the well-being of all human beings, our society, and our planet with ‘AminoScience’”, he added.
Commenting on the collaboration, Jean-Yves Krummenacher, Chief Procurement Officer at Danone, shared that by partnering with Ajinomoto Co., the company is expanding their toolkit of solutions for their farmers, bringing on a dual effect of reducing GHG emissions and improving margins for farmers.
Leveraging the experience gained from this partnership, in the future Ajinomoto and Danone will work to incorporate this decarbonization approach into tools for quantifying greenhouse gas reductions.
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