According to The Recursive, Nasekomo, a Bulgarian-based startup, noticed a higher demand for protein when it comes to growing fish and livestock, so in order to provide the protein and help somewhat with waste management at the same time, the team turned their attention towards black soldier flies.

The company started to scale production for the insect-based sustainable proteins, with financial support coming from Innovation Norway.

The company's budget is about 722.000 euro, 45% of it from Innovation Norway and the rest is provided by Nasekomo itself.

When these insects are in their larvae form, they consume a lot of food in order to grow in size and get to their final form, which helps with the waste management part.

Nasekomo uses these low environmental impact insects to cover three types of products: animal farming feed, food for pets and organic agricultural fertilizers.

Currently, the startup operates in a demo plant in Bulgaria, but plans to expand its operations in proximity to food sources for the larvae to save on transportation.

Furthermore, the company wants to position their activity close to one of their main customers, aquafeed producers.

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Scaling is very important in order for this product to show its whole benefits and provide the premium protein where it's most needed while converting waste into food.

Maria Aleksandrova, Project and Sustainability Manager at Nasekomo told The Recursive that "our team is investing in development of a set of insect-farming technologies that will be prototyped with intention for application in industrial-scale to match the scaling process of the company. The technologies will allow us to execute constant process and quality control, precise process management and enable efficient logistics to our customers."

The Nasekomo team expects the project to have a big impact in the aquafeed industry, saving 147.000 tons of wild fish from being used as a food source in the next six years.

Also, in the same time span, the company expects 105.000 tons less CO2 emissions by replacing traditional sources of protein with upcycled waste-based food.

Other European-based companies turned to insects for tackling food sustainability issues, one of which is UK-based Better Origin, which also uses black soldier flies to convert food waste into protein for animals.

Photo source: nasekomo website