United Nations figures suggest that the global human population reached 8 billion in 2022, and according to estimates by the UN Food and Agriculture (FAO), by 2050 we’ll need to be able to produce 60% more food to support what may, by then, be 9.3 billion people on the planet. Producing affordable, safe and nutritious food for a rapidly expanding world population is an ever-more critical challenge. Achieving food security for all will require a global rethink to evalulate alternative and new food as well as feed sources, develop sustainable farming and production methods, and combat food waste and the immediate impact of agriculture on the environment. The concept that edible insects, or insect-derived protein in particular, could help to address a global food shortage has been well recognized for decades. Many countries today rely on insects – from beetles and caterpillars, to ants and locusts - as a key source of protein. Insects are typically a rich source of proteins and other key nutrients, and in some cases may offer even better nutritional quality than foods derived from more common livestock.
In the majority of cases insect protein today is used for feed purposes, i.e. for aquacultures or piglet farms, but these small creatures are extremely versatile.
A sustainable food and feed source
Looking at nutritional, economic and environmental factors, insects might be considered a promising, high quality sustainable source of protein and other key dietary components, especially for our livestock. In addition to their high nutritional value insects are cheap to breed and efficient in terms of resources, as they have a short development cycle, rapid population growth, and high weight gain per day, with high conversion of feed to body weight.
Up to 80% of insect body weight can be used for nutrition, compared with 55% for chicken, and 40% for cattle. And from an environmental perspective, and compared with traditional farming practices, farming insects requires less space, and less water, while its also been suggested that eating and feeding insects could help to reduce environmental impact and help to mitigate climate change.
Insects are not only impressive due to their nutrient density. The use of insects as an alternative type of protein is also environmentally sustainable.
One-stop shop for protein extraction and processing
As one of the market and technology leaders for engineering solutions to recover and process protein from all kinds of sources, GEA is your one-stop shop to help you make the most out of all those benefits insects processing implicates.
From first product tests to feasibility studies, pilot equipment and plants right through to complete production lines to process the raised insects into protein and fat, GEA can supply key technologies required for customers developing new agricultural feed applications or even foods and food components.
While in the majority of cases insect protein today is used for feed purposes, i.e. for aquacultures or piglet farms, GEA also offers key technologies to further process protein powders into food.
From heating and grinding, protein extraction in decanters, subsequent evaporation and drying as well as polishing of the lipid phase, GEA offers all key technologies for the extraction of proteins and fats from insects.
Test before you invest
At our worldwide test centers you can partner with GEA experts to explore and evaluate technologies for insect processing. We can simulate the entire process and use the test data to help scale your projects safely and efficiently up to industrial scale. Ask about our pilot-scale processing lines, which can let you test out processes and recipes, and manufacture product samples to share with your customers and showcase your own expertise by producing proteins with different functionalities.
Just contact your local GEA representative and let’s get talking.Applications
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