A new European project, Large-scale production of proteins for food and feed applications from alternative, sustainable sources (FARMŸNG), will develop, on an industrial and automated scale, the breeding and transformation of insects for the production of feed ingredients.

FARMŸNG will develop a large-scale, first-of-its-kind bio-based value chain producing sustainable, safe feed products from Tenebrio molitor protein in Northern France. The facility developed for FARMŸNG will exploit the physiological capabilities of mealworms physiology to efficiently convert vegetal byproducts in mealworm biomass and will transform those mealworms into sustainable proteins and lipids for fish feed and pet food end markets. In parallel, manure will be recovered for soil fertilization applications.

The project is coordinated by Ÿnsect, a French startup company specialized in beetle breeding and insect-based products, in partnership with 20 key actors alongside the value chain such as ADM, Ajinomoto, Clextral, Skretting and Virbac Nutrition, among others. FARMŸNG project will transfer the technology from a demo plant to the industrial flagship plant able to produce almost 1,500 tons of proteins and 400 tons of oil per month.

This 37-months project is co-financed by the European Commission and the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU) by €20 million.