1-2B-1 Insects & novel production cycles (KB-34-006-001)

Effectively achieving fundamental changes in food production and consumption requires an economy, based on the principle of circularity and climate-neutrality. To contribute towards the circular economy, the highly efficient use of insects in the food chain needs to be further developed to ensure more sustainable, resilient supply chains, featuring high consumer acceptability and attractive market opportunities. Insects can contribute to circularity of the food chain since insects are able to convert low-grade resources into valuable ingredients for food, feed and the biobased economy. The focus in this project is on resources that are currently not yet allowed to use and cannot be fed directly to livestock. Moreover, insect farming can also significantly contribute to climate-neutrality as insect farming has environmental advantages compared to livestock production such as:less land and water are required, greenhouse gas emissions are lower and insects are highly efficient in converting by-products and waste into high-quality protein. However, commercial insect production is only in its infant stage, and needs to be improved at different stages of the insect production chain before scaling up can be achieved.