According to FAO (Edible insects: future prospects for food and feed security, 2013):

“… by 2050 the world will host 9 billion people.”

“… food production will need to almost double.”

“…what we eat and how we produce it needs to be re-evaluated.”

“We need to find new ways of growing food.”

“Insects offer a significant opportunity…”

This is the motto for our project. The use of insects as food takes advantage of their extraordinary nutritional content (essentially protein, but not only). At the same time, from an environmental point of view, it provides us with an unparalleled tool for converting by-products (mainly vegetables) into food ingredients.

In fact, insects (and specially the crickets we work with) are very efficient in converting by-products from the agri-food chain into food. This increased efficiency results from its lower use of resources (feed, water and space) and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

Additionally, an organic fertilizer with high-value agricultural applications is also obtained along the process.

Basically, it is the perfect implementation of the concept of circular economy: transforming what comes from the soil into food and returning part of it to the soil, to enrich it again.

The products obtained by this bioconversion will include whole powder, defatted powder, oil (fat), but also in the future, isolated proteins or chitin (for cosmetic applications).