Update: A-Z of insect protein/oil companies

Insect protein companies are popping up everywhere around the world, although a lot of knowledge and companies are seen in the Netherlands and France. These 2 countries have been pioneering in insect research and production already from the very beginning of the insect-meal revolution. Most of the companies use the larvae of the Black Soldier Fly larvae (Hermetia illucens).

This species is also known for its high conversion rate from feed / substrate to protein. Also the housefly and mealworms are used quite often. Take a look at the list and graphics below to see who is doing what and where. The 36 companies are listed in alphabetical order.

Insect meal/oil producing companies are located around the world.

ALAPRE

Country: Colombia

Founded (year): 2014

Type of insects used: Black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens)

Products sold: insect meal and compost sold under the trademark “ENTHOS”

Substrate used: organic waste and animal by-products

Production capacity: Pilot II project, 6 tons of meal/day

Website: www.insectmeal.com.co

AGRIPROTEIN

Country: South Africa

Founded (year): 2008

Type of insects used: Black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens)

Products sold: protein feed ingredient (MagMeal™), oil feed ingredient (MagOil™) and compost (MagSoil™)

Substrate used: pre- and post-consumer organic waste

Production capacity: greenfield factories will produce: per day, 16 metric tonnes (mt) protein feed ingredient, 9mt oil feed ingredient and 88mt compost.

Website: www.agriprotein.com

AMUSCA BV

Country: Netherlands

Founded (year): 2015

Type of insects used: Musca Domestica ( other insects at request))

Products sold: Amusca enables companies to produce insect larvae, and delivers all related services: Live Musca Domestica lines, insect producing modules, software to manage modules, module monitoring services and training services

Substrate used: Vegetal substrates and unprocessed former foodstuffs

Technology used: Amusca technology

Production capacity: Basic Module produces daily 3.5mt Musca Domestica larvae.

BIOFLYTECH

Country: Spain

Founded (year): 2012

Type of insects used: Black Soldier Fly larvae (Hermetia illucens) and Housefly (Musca Domestica)

Technology used: after five years of research in competitive industrial rearing, now in the process of finding investors to scale production according to world demands.

Production capacity: not yet

Website: www.bioflytech.com

ENTERRA FEED CORPORATION

Country: Canada

Founded (year): 2007

Type of insects used: Black Soldier Fly larvae (Hermetia illucens)

Products sold: whole dried larvae, meal and oil

Substrate used: pre-consumer recycled food products

Technology used: proprietary insect rearing technology

Production capacity: confidential

Website: www.enterrafeed.com

ENTOBEL

Country: Vietnam

Founded (year): 2013

Insects used: Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens)

Products sold: Insect meal, insect oil

Substrate used: EU Commission standards – no animal derived ingredients

Technology used: confidential

Production capacity: 24 tons of meal/year

Website: www.entobel.com

ENTOFOOD

Country: Malaysia

Founded (year): 2012

Type of insects: Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens)

Products sold: whole insect meal, defatted insect meal, insect oil

Substrate used: 100% vegetal substrate

Technology used: Entofood has developed a fully-automated processing line.

Production capacity: pilot production (2017) is 20mt/year. Upscale in 2018 to 1,000mt/year

Website: www.entofood.com

ENTOMO FARM

Country: France

Founded (year): 2014

Insects used: Mealworm (Tenebrio molitor)

Products sold: insect meal, insect oil, insect frass

Substrate used: bran

Technology used: only mechanical technologies are used by Entomo Farm for processing insect flour. IoT is used to control insect growing and production process.

Production capacity: 2,500mt in 2018

Website: www.entomo.farm

ENVIROFLIGHT

Country: USA

Founded (year): 2009

Insect used: Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens)

Products sold: dried BSF larvae, inset meal, insect oil, natural fertilizer

Substrate used: AAFCO approved ingredients

Technology used: proprietary

Production capacity: confidential

Website: www.enviroflight.net

HEXAFLY

Country: Ireland

Founded (year): 2015

Type of insects used: Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens)

Products sold: various applications, with a focus on animal feed, fish feed, plant and crop growth

Substrate used: all EU approved

Technology used: confidential

Production capacity: confidential

F4F

Country: Chile

Founded (year): 2014

Type of insects used: Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens)

Products sold: starter feed functional ingredients (fish and poultry), exotic pet snacks, fertilizer and feed development trials

Substrate used: pre consumer organic waste

Technology used: confidential

Production capacity: 100-150mt per year for 2018

Website: www.f4f.cl

FAIR INSECTS

Country: Netherlands

Founded (year): 1985 (100% owned by Protix)

Insects used: Yellow Mealworm, cricket and locust

Products sold: various applications, meals, lipids, whole dried, whole dried grinded mainly for use in professional food applications. All certified

Substrate used: all EU approved

Technology used: confidential

Production capacity: confidential

Website: www.fairinsects.com

GLOBAL BUGS

Country: Sweden/Thailand

Founded (year): 2016

Type of insects used: House crickets and Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens)

Products sold: cricket powder and snacks

Substrate used: initially Ecological Cricket Feed

Technology used: Confidential

Production capacity: initially 32mt raw crickets per annum

Website: www.globalbugs.asia

HERMETIA

Country: Germany

Founded (year): 2006

Type of insects used: Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens)

Products sold: dried larvae, insect meal, insect oil, fertiliser

Substrate used: bruised rye

Technology used: self-developed bio reactors

Production capacity: 350mt/year

Website: www.hermetia.de

HIPROMINE

Country: Poland

Founded (year): 2015

Type of insects used: Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens), mealworm (Tenebrio molitor)

Products sold: insects meal, live insects

Substrate used: plant based recycled food

Technology used: confidential

Website: www.hipromine.com

INNOVAFEED

Country: France

Founded (year): 2015

Insects used: Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens)

Products sold: defatted meal and purified fat of BSF larvae

Substrate used: 100% traceable feed-grade cereal by-products from GMP certified providers

Technology used: thermo-mechanical processes only, no solvent.

Production capacity: hundreds of mt of meal per year. Capacity is increased fivefold each year

Website: www.innovafeed.com

INSECTUM

Country: Lithuania

Founded (year): 2016

Insects used: Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens)

Products sold: BSF larvae frozen, dried and/or defatted

Substrate used: former foodstuff including milk and eggs

Technology used: proprietary

Production capacity: 5 kg/day of live BSF larvae (building a new factory and plan to have about 1 mt/day in about 12-15 months)

Website: www.insectum.eu

INVERS

Country: France

Founded (year): 2018

Insects used: mealworm (Tenebrio molitor)

Products sold: Dehydrated insects

Substrate used: Cereal by-products

Technology used: proprietary

Production capacity: 2mt/month

Website: www.invers

INVERTAPRO

Country: Norway

Founded (year): 2016 registration in Norway. * Project and initial facility established in Tanzania 2015

Insects used: Tenebrio Monitor and Black soldier fly

Products sold: Tenebrio molitor products: whole insects snacks (natural + chili) , insect meal from whole insects and frass from tenebrio monitor. No BSF products as of today

Substrate used: Pre-consumer commercial food waste. Main business focus is on lower grade food waste types including; catering and household waste. Company has started a major research project on these substrates in 2018

Technology used: Self developed solutions, focus on increasing automation

Production capacity: first quarter 2019 up to 1mt/month 

Website: www.invertapro.com

KRECA

Country: Netherlands

Founded (year): 1978

Insects used: various

Products sold: 10 types of insects for animal nutrition (petfood)

Substrate used: GMP+ and vegetable streams only

Technology used: proprietary

Production capacity: 500mt/year

Website: www.krecafeed.com

MULTIBOX

Country: United Kingdom

Founded (year): 2016

Type of insects used: Black Soldier Fly Larvae (Hermetia illucens)

Products sold: protein feed ingredient, oil feed ingredient, frass and chitin

Substrate used: EU compliant substrates

Technology used: confidential

Production capacity: confidential

Website: www.multibox.farm

MUTATEC

Country: France

Founded (year): 2015

Insects used: Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens)

Products sold: fresh larvae, dry larvae, defatted insect meal, insect oil, insect pellets, natural fertiliser

Substrate used: agriculture and agro-food by-products (vegetal origin)

Technology used: thermo-mechanical process

Production capacity: 25mt insect meal per year (2019). Scaling-up to 500mt per year (2020)

Website: www.mutatec.com

NASEKOMO

Country: Bulgaria

Founded (year): 2017

Type of insects used: Black Soldier Fly ((Hermetia illucens))

Products sold: Whole, live and dried larvae, insect meal, insect oil, fertiliser

Substrate used: 100% EU feed-grade vegetable by-products

Technology used: proprietary technology

Production capacity: confidential

Website: www.nasekomo.life

NEXTALIM

Country: France

Founded (year): 2013

Type of insects used: Black Soldier Fly ((Hermetia illucens))

Products sold: Insect fertilizer, BSF live or dried, BSF defatted proteins and BSF oil

Substrate used: 100% traceable EU approved by-products

Technology used: proprietary technology, LT process of the larvae, without solvent

Production capacity: 10mt larvae per day (2018)

Website: www.nextalim.com

NEXTPROTEIN

Country: France/ Tunisia

Founded (year): 2015

Insects used: Black Solider Fly larvae

Products sold: insect protein meal, oil and fertiliser

Substrate used: organic inconsumable food matter

Technology used: proprietary

Production capacity: target of 1mt of insect protein daily, derived from 5-10mt of inconsumable food matter by 2018. Current capacity: 30kg of insect larvae from 300kg of fruit and vegetable matter.

Website: www.nextprotein.co

NUSECT

Country: Belgium

Founded (year): 2004

Type of insects used: Locusta Migratoria en Molitor tenebrio

Products sold: Whole insects

Substrate used: All GMP certified ingredients

Production capacity: Mealworms: 60mt a year. Locusta: +/- 1mt a year

Website: www.nusect.be

NUTRITION TECHNOLOGIES

Country: Vietnam and Singapore

Founded (year): 2014

Type of insects used: Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens)

Products sold: live and dried whole larvae, insect meal, de-fatted insect meal & enriched protein powder, oil and frass

Substrate used: EU quality standard (100% vegetal), Halal

Technology used: 100% proprietary system optimised for tropical conditions (mechanised & automated)

Production capacity: 800 mt annual production (2018), 2,400 mt annual production (2019)

Website: www.nutrition-technologies.co.uk

OPTIPROT

Country: Mexico

Founded (year): 2016

Type of insects used: Mealworm (Tenebrio molitor)

Products sold: Dehydrated whole and ground T. molitor (brand name Okuilli)

Substrate used: Wheat bran

Technology used: Sieving machines for size selection and sieves for frass separation

Production capacity: 400- 1000 kilos a month (and growing)

Website: www.optiprot.com

PROTEINSECTA

Country: Spain

Founded (year): 2018

Type of insects used: 

Tenebrio Molitor, Gryllus Assimilis, Acheta Domestica, Blaptica dubia

Products sold: Live insects and insect meal

Substrate used: The substrate we use is composed of natural substances such as wheat bran, oat bran, fruits and varied vegetables

Technology used: The way of working with which we breed our insects is based on a form of manual work, developed by us where the greatest attention is paid to the details and the good treatment of the insect

Production capacity: 24mt/year (in 2020, projected production of around 100mt)

PROTENGA

Country: Singapore and Malaysia

Founded (year): 2016

Type of insects used: Black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens)

Products sold: protein feed ingredient (Hermet Meal), oil feed ingredient (Hermet Oil), compost (ReFood Fertilizer), compound feed products for fish, shrimps and pets (OEM and under YumGrubs brand)

Substrate used: 100% plant-based substrates and expertise in wide range of substrates for turnkey system deployment

Technology used: Protenga provides turnkey production systems powered by our data-driven insect-tech for consistent process and product quality in distributed production networks as well as a marketing and product platform for product commercialisation

Production capacity: R&D farm at 6mt (2018); data-driven insect-tech turnkey system designed for min 40mt protein meal per facility per month (2019)

Website: www.protenga.com

PROTI-FARM HOLDING NV

Country: Netherlands

Founded (year): 1978

Insects used: buffalo larvae (Alphitobius diaperinus, lesser mealworm) plus 10+ different insects for animal feed

Products sold: various applications with focus on food: buffalo’s frozen, freeze-dried, grinded (EntoPure)

Substrate used: all approved and 100% traceable vegetable and GMP+ feed streams

Technology used: proprietary, fully mechanised and automated on buffalo larvae, patents pending and filed

Production capacity: 2018: 5,000mt/year, 2019 onwards: 60,000mt/yr

Website: www.protifarm.com

PROTIFLY

Country: France

Founded (year): 2016

Insects used: Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens)

Products sold:fresh larvae, defatted insect meal, insect oil

Substrate used: 100% traceable agroindustrial byproducts (100% non-animal)

Technology used: confidential

Production capacity: 5mt of larvae per day (2019)

PROTIX

Country: Netherlands

Founded (year): 2009

Insects used: Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens)

Products sold: various applications, with focus on animal feed, food and crop growth

Substrate used: all EU approved

Technology used: confidential

Production capacity: confidential

Website: www.protix.eu

RIVER ROAD RESEARCH

Country: USA

Founded (year): 2009

Insects used: Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens)

Products sold: food waste stabilization, black soldier fly protein, fertilizer, biopolymers, pyomelanin, algae, chitin

Substrate used: food waste

Technology used: industrial fermentation, novel fly rearing techniques – 16 patents or patent applications in five main technology areas (pyomelanin production, dipteran fly rearing, algae production, food waste stabilization, and lithium ion battery safety)

Production capacity: Currently at pilot scale but expanding

Website: www.riverroadresearch.com

TOPINSECT

Country: Belgium

Founded (year):

Insects used: Buffalo worms

Products sold: Whole insects, live and frozen

Substrate used: GMP certified feed products

Production capacity: 30mt a year

Website: www.topinsect.be

UNIQUE

Country: China

Founded (year): 2014

Insects used: Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens)

Products sold: dried BSF larvae, inset meal, insect oil, natural fertiliser

Substrate used: AAFCO approved ingredients

Technology used: confidential

Production capacity: 100mt per month

Website: www.gzunique.com.cn

YNSECT

Country: France

Founded (year): 2011

Insects used: mealworm (Tenebrio molitor)

Products sold: protein, oil, frass

Substrate used: vegetal material only, like cereal by-products

Technology used: highly automated

Production capacity: confidential

Website: www.ynsect.com

This list does not intend to be a complete list of all the companies and start-ups around the world but is a selection made by All About Feed. This article will be updated on a regular basis (last update July 2019).