Our business: collecting, securing, recovering

Animal co-products and by-products have historically been reused by humans in various food and non-food applications: to feed livestock or pets, to make soap, to produce heat or energy, to fertilise the soil. The health crises of the 1990s and 2000s have made the recovery of animal materials more complex from a technical point of view, more regulated from a regulatory point of view, and much more sensitive from a societal point of view. 

At Akiolis, we specialise in the three fundamental steps that enable us to make the most of these sensitive organic materials derived from the agricultural and food sectors. Depending on their nature and their health status, we ensure their handling in independent, perfectly secure and traceable systems. 

Step 1: Collection from source

We collect animal materials from our supplier-partners, namely: breeders, meat industries, food industries, butcheries, retailers and private individuals. It is important to act quickly, as organic matter is rapidly degradable, and to ensure that there is no foreign matter.

The quality of the materials collected has a large impact on the quality of the products that result from their processing. That is why we have developed a programme together with material holders, so that they can benefit from the improved recovery of their materials, made possible by improving their quality​.

Step 2: Securing and processing in the plants

From our collection centers, the materials are transported to our processing plants. After heat treatment intended to sanitise them and to separate lipids from proteins, they are processed into animal fats, PAPs (Processed Animal Proteins) or meat-and-bone meal, depending on the case. At all stages of processing, we are keen to ensure the quality of the products. The aim is to guarantee the highest level of health safety as well as an outstanding traceability system while controlling the process parameters to preserve the nutritional values and composition of the products. 

Step 3: Recovery for new uses 

Once they leave our plants, the products become raw materials for new uses by our customers: nutritional uses (pet food or livestock feed), energy uses (biofuels, bioenergy, cement manufacturing), industrial uses (lipochemistry, soap making), agricultural uses (fertilisers) or gelatine production.​

Our fundamental principles: reliability, performance, commitment

Our solutions to unlock value are built on simple fundamental principles: reliability, performance and commitment.

Reliability is essential in a business like ours, with a very strong regulatory dimension and obvious public health and environmental protection implications. We owe our customers and society absolute reliability in order to guarantee health safety and traceability, both during sourcing and at the product level. We ensure flow separation between the different categories of materials. We also owe our local neighbours a constant level of reliability on our sites and in the operation of our plants, in order to minimise disturbance.

Our performance is the result of daily attention to service responsiveness and the control of collection and processing parameters. It is also based on innovation projects to maximise the nutritional and technical qualities of our finished products.

Finally, the involvement of our employees is palpable. Our job is a difficult one. It can only be done with passion. ​