Insect vision

Alternative protein advance confronts technology hurdle

TECHNOLOGY has become the biggest hurdle facing the development of insect protein as a commercial food and feed source, rather than the regulatory barriers which have surrounded the sector in its progress to date. This was the key message given to global feed business leaders by insect protein entrepreneur Katharina Unger, CEO and co-founder of Livin farms, based in Hong Kong.

insects and Unger was invited to explain how the system works during Nutreco’s massive AgriVision conference in the Netherlands last month.

She began by telling the event’s 400 delegates that with a green light for hurdles were being overcome sooner and more rapidly than was previously thought possible.

‘The insect farming industry is now very much into high-speed development

‘We already have some home consumers using our hive system alongside happened in the past with foods such as sushi and lobsters. These were work

‘Lobsters used to be viewed as the cockroaches of the ocean and look how

cent a year, added Unger, a fact which bodes well for the equivalent animal and new protein source.

‘One day, of course, we’ll look back on this stage in the advance of insect protein and it will all seem so obvious.’