Ajinomoto and Danone have announced a global strategic partnership aimed at reducing multiple sources of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions from the milk supply chain. This initiative utilises Ajinomoto’s solution AjiPro-L, a lysine formulation which, in addition to aiding in the absorption of the amino acid, is also cost-effective and a broad-ranging GHG reduction method in the market. As a part of Danone’s “Partner for Growth” program, both companies are working collaboratively to reduce GHG emissions from milk production.
Danone’s partnership with Ajinomoto provides it with another tool to reduce emissions from dairy farming. AjiPro-L delivers lysine, an essential amino acid, to the cow’s digestive system, where it can be absorbed as a nutrient. This product will reduce feed costs for farmers and also a spectrum of GHG emissions from the industry. In turn, this decreases the amount of high-protein, high-cost feed such as soybean meal — which contains excessive amino acids — in the cow’s diet while maintaining milk production; it also decreases the carbon footprint associated with procuring soybean meal as a protein source by approximately 20%, and nitrous oxide emissions from manure by approximately 25%.1
Moreover, in-vitro studies have shown that amino acid-balanced feed with AjiPro-L in combining with a methane reduction additive can amplify the effect of the methane reduction additive by approximately 30%2 and is expected to contribute substantially to reducing methane emissions from cow’s belches.
Sumio Maeda, general manager, executive officer and vice president of the bio and 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. 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.”
Jean-Yves Krummenacher, chief procurement officer at Danone, commented: “With partners like Ajinomoto, we are expanding our toolkit of solutions that we bringing to our dairy farmers that have a dual effect — on the one hand reducing on farm GHG emissions whilst on the other, supporting farmers to improve their margin, and as a result, boost their resilience.”
Both companies have already signed an MoU, and efforts are underway to introduce the solution to Danone’s contracted farmers in Spain, Brazil, and the US, as well as to Danone’s own farmers in Egypt and Morocco. In the future, Ajinomoto and Danone will work to incorporate the solution into tools for quantifying GHG reductions.
References
1 Calculated by Ajinomoto, per head of cattle per year. Amount of reduction varies with farmers’ feed design, etc.
2 Using a typical methane reduction additive. Calculated by Ajinomoto.
