Product description

Insect meal is a brown protein rich powder, usually made from whole, dried and grinded insects. The colour varies slightly between insect species used and the feed they are grown on.

Crude protein content varies from 40 up to 75%. Some insect meals, for example (black soldier fly larvae, housefly maggot meal, mealworm, silkworm) contain as high as 36 % oil. Aminoacidic as well as fatty acid composition depend on the species used and the growing substrate.

Product application

Insects have been a part of human diet through the ages. Today, it is believed that insects are part of the direct diet of 2 billion people, but insect rearing for food in the western world is still at a relatively pioneering stage. Insects are authorized in the EU for human consumption under novel food regulation since January 2018..

Insect meal for aquafeed is a rising industry in the western world. Since 2017 insect meal is authorized for aquaculture feeding in the UE. It provides an excellent source of protein and lipids. Chitin can also be valorized as a co-product. Larvae rearing generates frass as a by-product that can be used as a good fertilizer.

Raw materials

EU regulation 2017/893 authorizes the use of insect meal for aquaculture feeding and limits the number of substrates from animal origin that may be used for insect growth to specific category 3 by-products, fish meal among others. However, fish meal competes with insect meal as ingredient for feed.

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