Insect farming start-up Entocycle has received £10m from the UK government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund to build the country’s first large-scale farm to breed insects for pet food and animal feed.
At the new facility, reserved for a site outside of London, Entocycle will raise black soldier flies fed on food waste to produce sustainable insect protein. It will eventually be able to process up to 33,000 tons of food waste each year.
The company’s existing factory sits under railway arches at the London Bridge, where it feeds local food waste– such as leftover fruits and vegetables, discarded coffee grounds, or brewer’s grains– to the insects. Entocycle highlights that these types of waste have a smaller environmental footprint than traditional ingredients for animal feed like fishmeal, meat, and soy.
Global meat production’s damaging impact on the environment has brought to light that insects are a sustainable alternative to existing food sources. Unlike pigs or cows, insects can be bred in considerable numbers without requiring large amounts of land, feed, or water.
Keiran Olivares Whitaker, the founder of Entocycle, completed his master’s in environmental design from the University of Manchester. He then took time off to scuba dive and saw first-hand the damage that intensive farming was bringing about onto ocean coral reefs. Whitaker decided to do something about it, and in 2017, he launched Entocycle.
Whitaker said:
The UK is making an ambitious commitment to becoming a leader in sustainable food production systems. Through insects, we can guarantee local supply chains – the early experience of Covid-19 has shown just how important this will be – while making significant reductions to CO2 emissions.
The project consortium consists of UK insect companies Beta Bugs and Better Origin and Tesco, which provides seed funding.
In both the UK and the US, manufacturers, and supermarkets have tested consumers’ appetites with insect-based crunchy snacks and products such as pasta, flour, cereal, chips, and protein bars.
This month, UK-based start-up Small Giants will launch a range of savory crackers made with cricket flour, at first via Amazon, and eventually at supermarket listings via Tree of Life for wholesale. Some flavors will include turmeric and paprika, rosemary and thyme, and tomato and oregano.
US-based start-up Exo makes cricket protein bars, and the Chirps brand makes Cricket Protein Powder, Cricket Chips, Cricket Powder, and chocolate chip cricket cookie mix.
Meanwhile, the LIVIN farm’s desktop Hive allows people to grow their own healthy and sustainable food in the form of mealworms straight out of their home kitchen. The mealworms consume leftover vegetable scraps, so you never have to throw away any food.
