Doktorand Theodoros Vasileiou

I come from Greece, and my background is in agronomy and crop production. In 2022 I came to Sweden to study in SLU’s master’s programme Sustainable Food Systems because of my interest in food science and sustainability. I have also worked as a research assistant at the department of Energy and Technology at SLU in Ultuna, categorizing food waste data from office and household premises.

My project’s topic is sustainable feed for pig and poultry, and the aim is to make pig and poultry production in Sweden more sustainable by improving the way we use feed. Main supervisor of my project is Emma Ivarsson (SLU) and co-supervisors Helena Wall (SLU), Pernilla Tidåker (SLU) and Maja Hoffer (Lantmännen). 

Feed production is the single largest contributor to the environmental footprint of pig and poultry production, particularly in terms of global warming potential. A large part of the problem comes from the heavy reliance on imported soy, which not only has a high climate impact but also raises issues of land use, biodiversity, and food–feed competition.

At the same time, pigs and broiler chickens have high nutritional demands, especially for protein of high quality. This means we need to find alternatives that are both nutritionally suitable and environmentally sustainable. Promising options include domestic crops like oats and legumes, as well as novel protein sources such as mycoproteins produced from industrial side streams. Another strategy is to reduce the overall protein content in diets while still meeting the animals’ amino acid requirements.

The goal after identifying, testing and developing feed solutions is to is to formulate pig and poultry diets that reduce dependence on imported soy, increase the use of Swedish feed resources, and contribute to more self-sufficient and sustainable animal production.