At Vitafoods Europe 2026, Thai Union Ingredients showcased a shift in how the industry thinks about circularity. Upcycling is no longer a sustainability slogan, it’s being judged by whether the ingredient can deliver consistent quality, transparency, and performance at scale.

In this interview, Leena Uabumrungjit explains how Thai Union Ingredients converts tuna co-products into high-value nutrition through an integrated, controlled chain. The approach is built on end-to-end oversight, from raw material selection and crude oil production through refining and finished ingredients, including a dedicated marine oil refinery in Germany. The goal is simple: make traceability real (and audit-ready) while improving consistency for brands that need dependable supply and specification control.

Circularity only works if it is disciplined. For Thai Union Ingredients, that means applying tight specifications and process control to transform co-products into refined oils and new ingredient platforms such as marine collagen peptides and calcium. Because roughly half of a tuna can be co-product, the utilisation opportunity is significant and it’s only valuable if the output meets demanding safety and quality expectations.

The business is also moving traceability from paperwork to a data-driven operating system. Thai Union is rolling out end-to-end digital traceability with Wholechain across global operations over a 24-month rollout, supporting more reliable verification across the chain.

Critically, the story is backed by measurable outcomes. Thai Union Ingredients’ collagen scale-up includes a 2.6x increase in collagen yield and a 0% raw-material rejection rate for incoming skin through tighter supplier handling standards and inspection protocols.

The bottom line: brands and consumers are asking for more functionality and more transparency at the same time. Thai Union Ingredients’ “source to ingredient” model is designed to deliver both – at industrial scale.