BGF Retail Provides Near-Expiration Convenience Store Food as Mealworm Feed

BGF Retail, operator of convenience store CU, announced on the 23rd that it has signed a business agreement with the green bio-material company ‘KEIL’ to take the lead in establishing a resource circulation system that uses near-expiration food products as feed for mealworms.

A researcher at Kale is supplying mixed feed to mealworms being raised in a smart farm factory.
[Photo by BGF Retail]

The green bio industry is a new sector that creates high added value by applying biotechnology to agricultural biological resources. KEIL is a startup engaged in an eco-friendly material business utilizing edible insects, mealworms, which consume less water and grains and have high land utilization.

Based on this business agreement, BGF Retail will provide food products that have passed or are near their expiration date at logistics centers as feed for mealworms. Near-expiration products sorted at logistics centers will be delivered to KEIL, which will reprocess them into compound feed. Most processed foods, accounting for about 80% of convenience store items such as ramen, snacks, beverages, and alcoholic drinks, will be provided as mealworm feed.

KEIL extracts functional substances such as protein, unsaturated fatty acids, and omega-3 from the mealworms raised in this way and uses them as raw materials to develop organic fertilizers and feed for livestock and aquatic products, as well as to research and produce cosmetics and health functional foods.

BGF Retail will deliver about 11 tons of near-expiration food products to KEIL by next month. For every 1 ton reduction in product disposal, approximately 0.97 tons of carbon emissions can be reduced, enabling a total reduction of about 11 tons of carbon emissions.

Yang Jae-seok, head of communications at BGF Retail, said, “We expect this business agreement to establish a resource circulation process to become a precedent for efforts to create a sustainable environment in the domestic distribution and food industry.” He added, “BGF Retail will continue ESG management that contributes to the public good through various attempts to solve environmental issues.”