EU-GROWN SOLUTIONS FOR EUROPE’S PROTEIN AMBITIONS
RECOGNISING THE ESSENTIAL ROLE OF STARCH BIOREFINERIES IN THE EU’S PROTEIN STRATEGY AND BEYOND
EXECUTIVE BRIEF
- The EU’s protein strategy aims to strengthen food security, sustainability and protein autonomy, with a balanced approach to plant-based and animal proteins.
- The starch industry is a key contributor to this strategy, as it co-produces large volumes of plant-based proteins from EU-grown crops through circular biorefineries, without requiring additional land.
- By linking farmers to food and feed markets, starch processors enhance EU resilience, reduce import dependence, and support rural economies.
- We ask for the recognition of processors as key actors in the EU Protein Strategy, ensuring a competitive and innovation-friendly framework, and alignment of protein policy with the EU bioeconomy and competitiveness agenda.
INTRODUCTION
The European starch industry is a cornerstone of the EU bioeconomy and a strategic contributor to Europe’s resilience and increasing protein autonomy, as it produces more than 1 million tonnes of high protein content products each year for the food and feed markets. In a highly competitive global environment, ensuring that Europe’s processing sector remains innovative and cost-competitive is essential to making affordable, sustainable plant-based foods available to consumers.
Through a proven near zero-waste circular biorefinery model, our sector transforms every component of EU-grown crops such as wheat, corn, and potatoes—carbohydrates, proteins, and fibers—into high-value ingredients. This includes high-quality plant-based proteins produced without requiring additional land. As longstanding partners to European farmers, we provide stable outlets, support crop rotation and soil health, and strengthen rural economic resilience. In doing so, starch processors act as a bridge between farmers and the food and feed sectors, creating diversified markets for EU-grown raw materials.
As the EU prepares its 2026 EU Protein Strategy, alignment with the Bioeconomy Strategy and the broader innovation and competitiveness agenda will be essential. A balanced approach that supports both animal and plant-based proteins—working with and for farmers—will best strengthen EU food security, competitiveness and sustainability. Processing is central to this ambition: competitive biorefineries are indispensable to scaling production, enhancing nutrient density, improving functionality and ensuring food affordability.
Starch Europe offers a unique dual contribution:
- Expanding high-quality, nutritional and functional plant products with high protein content for human diet (from bakery and specialised nutrition to sports, infant, and elderly nutrition)
- Supplying a reliable, homegrown stream of high-quality nutritional and functional high protein content products for specialised feed (aquaculture, pet food, young animal food)
- Producing medium protein content products as feed material (such as corn & wheat gluten feed) for livestock.
- Providing carbohydrates as essential feedstock for the production of fermentation proteins.
- This complementarity strengthens EU food security, contributes to strategic autonomy by reducing import dependence, and supports climate, circularity and biodiversity objectives.
To unlock the full potential of this EU-grown protein success story, Europe must ensure a predictable, innovation-friendly and competitive policy framework that allows processors to scale up production, invest, and continue driving value for farmers, consumers, and the wider bioeconomy.
To read the full position on plant-based proteins, click below:
