The European Green Deal is the EU’s approach to accelerating the ecological transition of climate change. Its main target is to make the EU ‘climate-neutral’ by 2050. In this context, green claims are gaining interest, as they can provide a business advantage to the companies making them. To limit greenwashing, the European Commission (EC) has drafted the Green Claims Directive, which was adopted by the EU Parliament in March 2024. The key aspects of this Directive are that claims shall be properly substantiated, while communication of green claims shall only be made on aspects properly substantiated. In many cases a lifecycle analysis (LCA) will be required.

For the animal feed industry, the necessity to conduct an LCA will have a major impact along the whole chain. A company willing to make claims on a mixture will need data on all ingredients, provided by numerous suppliers or available as secondary data in databases. Suppliers may need to provide many data, and possibly also a complete LCA, to permit their customers to substantiate the claims made on products containing the feed ingredient. The main challenges will reside in the high investments needed by authorities and by industry to adapt to those requirements. Nonetheless, this may pave the way for business opportunities and innovation.