The Feed of the Future for Fish, Pigs, Poultry and Laying hens

Feed accounts for the largest share of the climate impact from pigs, fish, poultry, and eggs. In addition, it often contains imported soy and fishmeal from wild-caught fish. Soy requires vast areas of land, while fishmeal contributes to extensive overfishing. Together, overfishing and the conversion of rainforests and other land into agricultural land for feed are two of the greatest drivers of global biodiversity loss. At the same time, Sweden is not making effective use of the vast side streams available in its seas, forests, and food industry. Every year, 1.3 million tonnes of food waste are generated in Sweden alone from manufacturers, retailers, restaurants, and households. Much of it does not return as food, but instead goes to biogas, fertilizer, heat, or electricity. We want to change that.

In the Feed of the Future for Fish, Pigs, Poultry and Laying hens project, stakeholders across the entire value chain work together to reduce resource waste and the environmental footprint of feed, while also strengthening Sweden’s supply resilience and domestic agriculture. The goal is to establish pilot production of new protein ingredients and feeds, as well as pilot production and sales of fish, poultry, eggs, and pork raised on feed made with resource-smart protein sources that benefit biodiversity. Over time, the ambition is for these feeds to replace a large share of today’s conventional feed.

Researchers at SLU are evaluating the nutritional composition and digestibility of innovative protein sources – such as mussels, mycoprotein, and insects – that make use of side streams and nutrients from oceans and forests as well as by-products from the food industry.

In collaboration with feed industry, new feed formulas are being developed and trialed in practice by Swedish farmers and aquaculture producers. The fish have already been assessed in sensory tests by researchers at the School of Hospitality, Culinary Arts and Meal Science (RHS), Campus Grythyttan. The remaining products will also be evaluated before the project concludes.

Future Fish and Future Eggs have now reached stores and restaurants.
Future Fish – a Swedish rainbow trout from Älvdalslax, raised on Future Feed – was the first product from the project to reach the market. To our knowledge, this was the first time in the world that fish raised with fungal protein was sold commercially. The feed also contained insects and mussels. Future Eggs from Swedish Livestock Research Centre at SLU, come from laying hens fed a soy-free feed in which Swedish mycoprotein has been used as the protein source.

The results are about more than just the final products – they also represent progress along the way, showing that alternative circular protein sources can be used as feed ingredients in practice. Read more about the results from the Future Fish launch.

In Future Feed for Fish, imported soy and fishmeal from wild-caught fish are replaced with insects, mycoprotein, and mussels. These resource-smart ingredients are based on circular flows and reduce pressure on biodiversity:

• Insects (Black soldier fly) convert food by-products into protein.
• Mussels (farmed Blue mussels from the Baltic Sea) help reduce eutrophication by absorbing nutrients and keeping them within the food system.
• Mycoprotein (fungal protein) converts side streams from the forestry and food industries into protein.

In feed for Future Fish, all these raw materials have been used instead of both soy and fishmeal. For the laying hens producing Future Eggs, fungal protein has been used as a protein source instead of soy. Conventional egg production today is fishmeal-free.

Researchers at SLU have evaluated the nutritional composition of these protein sources and analyzed their digestibility for different animal species. The findings show they are high-quality proteins with the potential to replace soy and fishmeal. Feed formulation work and practical feed trials for pigs and poultry are underway during summer 2026 together with commercial feed companies and Swedish farmers.

Future Eggs come from Swedish laying hens at Swedish Livestock Research Centre at SLU, that have been fed Future Feed. The feed is soy-free and instead uses mycoprotein as protein source.

The eggs are sold and served for a limited period at Urban Deli in Stockholm during spring 2026. The first sensory test shows that the eggs taste at least as good as eggs from hens fed conventional feed.

The ‘Future Fish’ is a Swedish rainbow trout from Älvdalslax, raised on Future Feed. It was sold September–November 2025 to consumers via select Hemköp stores and at Urban Deli, and to a number of restaurants in Sweden, through Fiskhallen Sorunda.

Sensory tests at the School of Hospitality, Culinary Arts and Meal Science (RHS), Campus Grythyttan show that the fish tastes just as good as fish raised on conventional feed – and it grows just as well. . It was described as having “a fresh, nutty flavour with a juicy and smooth texture that melts in the mouth.”

Axfoundation leads the project together with SLU. Our role is to unite the value chain and bridge research with practice – developing sustainable, profitable business models. Together with retailers and food service companies, we help contextualize how these products can best reach the market.