Fly feed “for big farms” to be ready for 2019

by
William Stoichevski

Netherlands-based insect protein producer, Protix, will have commercial quantities of its ProteinX aquafeed ingredient ready for larger fish farms within a year, the company’s founder told SalmonBusiness.

“Commercial quantities of ProteinX (derived from the black soldier fly) are now available and GMP-plus and Securefeed-certified,” said Tarique Arsiwalla, Protix’s founder. Current supplies are only enough to “kick-start the first smaller salmon or trout farms”.

“Protix is ramping up its production capacity this year which will bring further availability to start supplying larger fish farms by beginning of 2019,” he said.

Capacity: a sprawling Buhler complex in Germany PHOTO: Buhler

Read Fly-fed salmon tastes “very good”

Protix’s joint venture with German manufacturer, Buhler, suggests that more protein production capacity will become available in the coming years. The JV —  Buhler Insect Technology Solutions — will design and build insect production facilities “for third parties” to grow the availability of insect protein globally.

A European Union law from June of 2017 treats insects “as farmed animals”. The condition is that they’re not fed potentially toxic material like manure or waste or “anything containing heavy metals, toxins or other undesirable substances”.

EU OK
Norway, since the start of 2018, has adhered to the EU rule and opened up, legally, to the cultivating of insects to produce insect meal as a substitute for using relatively scarce fish meal.

Arsiwalla said agriculture Europe’s farms are already using insect supplements in their feed. He pointed to LipidX, similar to ProteinX, which supplements the usual lipids, or naturally occurring fatty compound, with fatty-acid-rich insect lipids in piglet feed.

“The quality and safety of insect proteins produced in EU are guaranteed and stable and many non-EU countries follow the EU legislation,” he said.

Read First crop of insect-fed salmon shows promise

Editing notice: This article, first published on March 2nd 2018, was edited on March 8th to remove reporting referencing a possible future producer of insect feed in commercial quantities.

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