Bugs are now big business. Now a 10,000 tonnes a year production line is on the cards.
Fish feed producers’ Aller Aqua, DTU Aqua, Teknologisk Institut (the Danish Technological Institute), Hanneman Engineering and Champost are partnering with the company Enorm to establish Denmark’s first industrial insect production.
Lasse Hinrichsen and Jane Lind Sam, the founders of Enorm have been trying to change the way people think about food by creating snacks made out of larvae and even say Crown Prince Frederik is a fan.
The goal of the project is to produce 30 tonnes of insects per day four years from now, while answering the ecological problem of food waste. AgriProtein’s insect factories are set take in 250 tonnes of waste feedstock per day.
The project has been granted EUR 2.1 million from the Ministry of Environment and Food Denmark.
One of the outputs from the project will be insect meal. Aller Aqua’s role will be to help develop and test products suitable for trout farming. Should this succeed, insect meal could also be tested as an ingredient for feed for salmon and tilapia.
“Insect meal has the potential to be a valuable raw material in fish feed not only due to its high protein content. Several trials have been carried out with the inclusion of insect meal to replace or partially replace fish meal in fish feed with promising results, but further research is needed before commercial application. Research and trials will be carried out at Aller Aqua Research in Büsum, Germany,” explained Dr Hanno Slawski, Group Research & Development Director for Aller Aqua.
