Danes invest in insect meal sector

DANISH feed company Aller Aqua has partnered with an insect factory to produce Denmark’s first industrial scale insect meal.

The goal of the project, funded to the tune of DKK 15.9 million by the Danish government, is to produce 30 tonnes of insects per day four years from now.

One of the outputs from the project, with insect company Enorm Biofactory, will be insect meal, and 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,’ said Hanno Slawski, group research and development director for Aller Aqua.

‘Several trials have been carried out with the inclusion of insect meal to replace or partially replace fishmeal 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.

Besides producing insect meal for inclusion in fish feed, Enorm Biofactory will also produce both insect meal and oil for use in pork and poultry production, and eventually human consumption.

In addition, the project, which also involves the Danish Technological Tnstitute, Hanne- man Engineering and Champost, focuses on achieving a no-waste-production with optimal usage of all nutrients and resources.