The Dutch multinational Royal DSM announced that it has received a positive opinion from the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) for the use of its new feed additive for ruminants that reduces methane, Bovaer, in the European Union. It is a feed additive for cows that reduces enteric methane emissions by approximately 30%.
This opinion supports the final approval stage of the application in the European Commission's Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed. Bovaer is the result of a decade of scientific research, and includes over 50 peer-reviewed studies published in independent scientific journals plus 45 in-house trials in 13 countries on 4 continents.
In addition, the multinational company recently launched a series of new quantifiable commitments aimed at addressing the urgent social and environmental challenges related to the way the world produces and consumes food. Among the commitments, the double-digit reduction of livestock emissions by 2030.
Reducing methane emissions is crucial to achieving the Paris Agreement goal of a global warming maximum of 1,5 degrees, mainly because the warming effect of methane is shorter and much more powerful than carbon dioxide. Experts from Cop26, the United Nations climate change conference, have underlined the major impact that further attention to reducing methane emissions can have, and the agricultural sector must play its part. Incidentally, cows produce over 50% of methane emissions.
To prepare for a further increase in scale in the coming years, planning has begun for a large new plant in Dalry, Scotland, which is expected to start up in 2025. The DSM production site in Dalry has been in operation for more than 60 years and produces micro-nutrients. It is also the only western producer of vitamin C.
