Sustainable insect production for feedLars-Henrik Heckmann, Technology Manager, PhD

Amsterdam 6-7 March 2018

Insects as feed: Regulatory overview

European insectindustry

Insects with an industrial potential as feed

Beetles

▪ Lesser mealworm (Alphitobius diaperinus)

▪ Common mealworm (Tenebrio molitor)

Flies

▪ Black soldier fly (BSF) (Hermetia illucens)

▪ Common housefly (Musca domestica)Protein: 40-60%Fat: 10-30%DM: 35-40%

Generic production process

Climate and resource efficient production

▪ Low use of water (>100-1000x) compared to other animal livestock production

▪ Currently, ~5 times better feed conversion efficiencycompared to cattle

▪ Low requirements for production area (1/10 used for production of equivalent quantity of protein from cattle)

▪ Very low emission (>100x) of greenhouse gasesand ammonia compared to production with pigs and cattle

Main challenges of the insect industry

▪ Upscaling (industrial level)

▪ Insect biology in production environment

▪ Development of (customized) automation

▪ Development of species-specific feed

▪ Legal barriers (EU) in feed and food

▪ Increasing the knowledge-level on feed/food safety of insects

▪ Political priority to promote the use of insects as feed and food

▪ Consumer acceptance (mainly as food)

▪ Information...

Danish R&D projects 2017/18 (>100k €)Projects focusing on insects as feed highlighted

Mealworms

▪ inVALUABLE (3.7M €, IFD)

▪ SUSMEAL (1.1M €, IFD)

▪ VALIN (175k €, GUDP)

▪ Wholi (100k €, IFD)

▪ ENORM (100k €, IFD)

▪ NLF (135k €, IFD)

Black Solider Fly

▪ WICE (390k €, MUDP)

▪ SUPERIOR (375k €, MUDP)

▪ Green Biorefining (360k €, F&I)

Crickets

▪ GREEINSECT (1.34M €, DANIDA)

▪ Syngja (200k €, IFD)

>7M € portfolio

inVALUABLE: OverviewInsect Value Chain in a Circular Bioeconomy

Duration: 2017-2019 (36 months)

Total budget: 3.7M EUR (2.5M EUR investment from Innovation Fund Denmark)

The vision of inVALUABLE is to create a sustainable resource-efficient industry for animal production based on insects

The partners span the entire value chain and include entrepreneurs, experts in biology, biotech, automation, processing and food technology and safety. This interaction of competences is key to lifting insect production to an industrial level

inVALUABLE: Focal areasInsect Value Chain in a Circular Bioeconomy

inVALUABLE: Feed Application (WP6)

▪ Animal feed experiments are carried out using rats, pigs and broilers to assess and document the nutritional and health value of insects in animal feed

▪ Results from the rat study will be used to design a comparative protein evaluation study of several insect species (e.g. mealworms and black soldier flies) fed to pigs using the DIAAS method

▪ A second pig study will be conducted to assess the effects of insect as feed on performance and health; including assessment of immune and antimicrobial effects

▪ Assessment of growth performance in broiler chickens using mealworms and black solider flies as starter feed

WICEWaste, Insects and Circular Economy

▪ WICE partners cover the biogas insect value chain

Organic household waste Black Soldier Flies (BSF) Mink

▪ Outputs

▪ Establishment of a pilot production of BSF reared on organic household waste

▪ Assessment of feed potential of BSF for mink - high (~90%) digestibility of protein and fat

▪ Assessment of insect frass (‘manure’), in plant production and biogas

Future opportunities – more than meets the eye…

▪ Insects as biologically relevant feed for fish (aquaculture), poultry and pigs

▪ Feed for insects as new market segment in the animal feed sector

▪ Application of insects utilizing food and catering waste as feed for fur producing animals, pet food and… aquaculture in years to come?

THANK YOU!

Lars-Henrik Heckmann

E: LHLH@dti.dk

M: +45 7220 1537