Sustainability
Responsible sourcing is at the core of our business. We supply our products as cost-efficient and quickly as possible to our customers while reducing or eliminating negative environmental impact.
Here at Konvergent, we’re always on the lookout for ways to minimize our impact on the environment. Many of our products are based on agricultural by-products and these are a rich source of energy and nutrition. We work with our partners on these valuable resources, develop new products, and sell them to petfood producers and ingredient suppliers.
Closing the gap
At this moment Europe is exporting over 1 million metric tons of high-quality animal proteins to other continents like Asia. Locally those proteins are being fed to land animals and fishes. A part of that meat is being re-exported to Europe. We see it as a responsibility for Konvergent to do our utmost to utilize these animal proteins in Europe itself. Also, because Europe is filling that protein gap with for example soybean meal from Brazil. If we, as an industry, could close this gap we could have such a tremendous positive impact on our planet. Konvergent is striving to contribute significantly to this solution.
Switching out synthetics
In line with the ‘clean label’ trend and need for more natural and sustainable products we have developed a range of very strong natural antioxidants based on natural extracted vitamin E and herbal extracts. Our Vitamin-E (Tocopherols) are extracted from by-products of vegetable oil for human consumption and turned in to useful products that can replace synthetic antioxidants. Our products are helping to mitigate and delay lipid oxidation resulting in fresher products and reduction of spoilage.
Minimizing food miles
Some raw materials are only available outside Europe because of climatological reasons (for example tapioca). We always aim to create the shortest possible supply chains. Instead of sending all the imported goods to our central facility in The Netherlands we make use of multiple trusted third party warehouses. In this way the goods go straight to the destination country and for example no trucking from North- to South-Europe is necessary. And as an additional benefit we create short leadtimes to deliver the goods to our end customers.
Reducing spoilage
Fish oils from different species have different fatty acids profiles. The increased usage of healthy omega 3 and 6 fatty acids by the petfood producers have presented significant challenges to pet food stabilization. The healthy poly-unsaturated fatty acids are very sensitive to oxygen and can quickly deteriorate. Our fish oil products are tailored to our customers wishes and we use natural antioxidants as shelf-life enhancers. Fresh products, all natural, reducing spoilage.
Preserve beneficial bacteria
Bacterial contamination is one of the main causes for spoilage of agricultural ingredients. It can occur at any stage of the production chain from harvest to end product. Heat treatment can be very effective to reduce enterobacteria but is also eliminating beneficial bacteria and allows more room for pathogenic bacteria to ‘re-contaminate’ the ingredients. To prevent this re-contamination, we have developed products based on different organic acids with different modes of action. Some can easily enter the bad bacteria and facilitate an optimal environment for the other organic acids to fight and eliminate the bad bacteria.
Repurpose feathers
Protein meal that is produced from selected and purified chicken feathers can be used as a source of a pure structural protein called keratin which can be exploited for conversion into several high-value products. It is a very healthy protein source for petfood and animal feed with a favorable digestible amino acid pattern and extremely low ash content. It will serve as a more versatile substitute for other protein sources. Lifecycle analysis has shown the carbon footprint benefits of using proteins from animal by-products, like feathers, that are locally produced, can replace soy protein with a net reduction in carbon emissions.
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