Insects as food and feed - the nutritious, tasty, small ecological footprint alternative for the future
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | SP SVERIGES TEKNISKA FORSKNINGSINSTITUT AB - SP Sveriges Tekniska Forskningsinstitut AB, Uppsala |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 500 000 |
| Project duration | April 2016 - January 2017 |
| Status | Completed |
| Venture | Challenge-Driven Innovation – Stage 1 initiation |
Purpose and goal
The project (with UDI-2) is intended to develop the possibilities for insects as food and feed. The production, any processing and consumption should be done in Sweden, in an economic and sustainable way. Further, the project concentrates on some major barriers for insects as food and feed. These are cost of production and processing of insects, legislation issues, and consumer attitudes and gastronomy.
Expected effects and result
A workplan has been drawn up, and a consortium has been formed to implement it. As our main business concept and priority, we have decided that the main part of the project should deal with mealworms as food. However, as is clear from the organisations in the consortium, there are also other concepts that may be studied. These include forestry products as a component in insect feed, for forest insects and others, insects as feed to poultry, fish and pigs, and crickets as food.
Planned approach and implementation
A project plan has been made for the UDI-2, with WPs covering production, quality, legislation, protein extraction, consumer attitudes, food applications, business plans, dissemination of results. Further outcomes of the UDI-1 are a State of the art report, a literature study on edible forest insects and the possibilites to rear them (courtesy of one of our UDI-2 partners) and an article regarding consumer acceptance, submitted for a conference.