Insect bioconversion (IBC) refers to the utilisation of insects in converting organic biomass wastes (such as food wastes) into sustainable inputs for food, feed and non-food industries. Although core regulation in place currently in the UK allows for some forms of IBC to take place legally and compliantly, at present there remains a large gap in producers' abilities of to leverage the power of IBC to maximise organic biomass waste valorisation domestically. In particular, it is currently illegal to use many types of organic wastes, such as animal product containing food wastes or manures, to farm insects on -- even when the insect in question, such as maggots, thrive in such environments naturally. This project will seek to bring together producers, technologists, academics and regulators working in IBC, with the goal of further unlocking IBC use in the UK beyond existing practices, whilst ensuring safe and responsible practices.

**Growth of the UK insect farming industry is currently curtailed by:** 1. tight legislation on the use of processed animal proteins, including insect proteins, severely limiting the markets for insect products. 1. a lack of protocols covering occupational health of staff involved in insect rearing under high-density monoculture conditions in enclosed artificial environments. 1. Food Safety and Quality Standards, and Codes of Practice for insect rearing that align with global standards and retailers' 'Codes of Supply'. These **currently do not exist for permissive feedstocks** but are crucial to the development and future viability of this emerging sector. This is also limiting the development of additional revenue streams, such as insect by-products as these barriers also apply. Furthermore, insect rearing systems that utilise **non-permissive feedstocks** could **unlock the sectors potential** towards production scales that are required for insect farming to be of global significance within the alternative protein industry. **InSAFE** will inform the feasibility of developing protocols, codes of practice and standards appropriate for larvae rearing facilities spanning a range of feedstocks and production scales, including containerised units, 20 tonne and 1,000 tonne insects/day units. Research will provide robust data to underpin the development of these documents. The National Pig Centre at the University of Leeds is home to a containerised insect rearing unit built to specification in collaboration with Entocycle, serving as a novel demonstrator facility to rear black soldier fly (BSF) larvae on non-permissive feedstocks such as pig slurry, sewage sludge and chicken manure. **The project's novelty is derived from:** 1. its use of non-permissive feedstocks 1. exploring the health and safety elements of rearing insects, including occupational health 1. developing protocols and code of practices for insect farms that comply with food safety standards. Samples will be collected from the unit, in addition to Entocycle's BSF rearing set-up for permissive feedstocks, including segregated food waste. Our project will analyse the bacterial microbiome, pathogen loads, presence of AMR genes, and heavy metal content of permissive and non-permissive feedstocks before and after insect bioconversion, alongside analysis of the BSF larvae and by-products such as frass.

Black Soldier Fly (BSF) farming is now widely accepted as a key solution to tackling some of the world's biggest challenges in agriculture. BSF can simultaneously recycle food waste into insect-based animal feed (a sustainable alternative to fishmeal) and biofertiliser (a sustainable alternative to chemical fertilisers). This highly complex farming system requires input from experts across research, governmental and commercial sectors. No single organisation is currently in possession of all the required expertise. Whilst hundreds of scientific papers and millions of pounds have been invested globally into validating the transformative potential of BSF farming techniques, the race is still on to demonstrate large-scale, profitable BSF farming operations. The UK is home to leading BSF specialists with expertise covering the entire value chain. In 2017, partners in this application formed the UK Insect Biomass Conversion Working Group (IBCWG) to combine their expertise with the shared idea that together our combined knowledge is greater than the sum of its parts. In isolation, we are leading specialists in entomology, engineering, data analytics, machine vision, food safety and food supply chains but, together, we can deploy highly profitable and sustainable BSF farming systems. This project provides an exciting opportunity to combine our expertise and collective ambition to establish the UK as the global industry leader by developing a complete BSF farming system that is **profitable**, **sustainable** and **scalable** to leapfrog global competition. This project will realise the transformative nature of BSF farming by: * Delivering system demonstrators that converts industrial quantities of food waste into insect-based animal feed and biofertilizer using our groundbreaking, highly automated technology; * Generating the data to prove that BSF farming is **profitable**, **low carbon** and **scalable** in the UK; * Validating the **safety** and **efficacy** of **insect-based animal feed** and **biofertiliser**; and * Prove product safety and address the final legislative bottlenecks. By proving the above, we **unlock access to growth finance** which will enable us to **rapidly scale** the BSF farming industry in the UK and overseas. The partners intend to establish the UK as an international centre of excellence for BSF farming and technology. By 2040, we aim to have delivered over 100 sites internationally, create 3300 UK based jobs, generated combined annual revenues of £400m for UK tax paying businesses and delivered savings of **50m tonnes CO2** equivalent \[IBCWG\] - driving us towards the Government's targets for **net zero emissions**.

The world's food production system is broken. 20% of the food the EU produces each year is lost or wasted costing €143bn in addition to the environmental consequences. At the same time, current food production and, in particular, animal proteins have become increasingly environmentally unsustainable. Wild caught fishmeal stocks have declined by over 30% in the last 15 years and 4m hectares of rainforest are culled annually in the production of soy. Put simply, today's proteins can't meet tomorrow's demand and the entire value chain of agri-food is seeking new, alternative protein sources to meet this increased demand. Entocycle are using insects to sustainably feed the world. The company's mission is to replace destructive and unsustainable forms of protein in animal, fish and ultimately, human diets. Entocycle is creating game-changing, disruptive technology by developing the world's first turnkey BSF breeding system designed for rapidly scaling insect protein producers around the world. With the help of IUK funding, Entocycle can become the industry leader in insect breeding technologies (creating jobs, wealth and a centre of excellence for insect protein technologies in the UK).

"The project aims to make significant efficiency gains in the breeding of insects to achieve industrial-scale production of a replacement for fishmeal, an unsustainable animal feed ingredient. The UN predicts that by 2025, the world will have a 60m tonne deficit of protein with which to feed animals, fish and humans, equating to 12x current global fishmeal production. This problem is amplified in the EU, where 95% of soy protein is imported (MVO 2015), while 88 million tonnes (€143bn) of food is wasted each year, a key feed-source of insects. It is clear innovation is needed and more specifically, locally grown, sustainable sources of protein for future food supply. Entocycle farms and processes the Black Soldier Fly (BSF), whose larvae consume organic waste and convert it into high-quality protein and co-products, creating a circular economy. Entocycle's focus is development of bespoke innovative technology which bring down production cost through efficiency and uniformity of key processes. We have developed patent-pending breeding technology and prototyped high-potential solutions to other key challenges, bringing this much needed solution to market at competitive prices. The companies' market entry will be the Aquaculture sector, a market where insect protein was deregulated in July 2017\. This market is worth £116m in the UK today and set to grow to £233m by 2030 (gov.scot, 2018). The improvements on current state of the art will enable a UK company to be the first to achieve economies of scale in the industry, stealing the march in this high-value, high growth market. A local high-quality protein source will contribute to increased agricultural productivity and food security in the UK, and lower dependencies on imports. As described by Alltech, a global leader in animal health: ""Insect protein has been in the spotlight for some time now, and the industry has been waiting for a source that is both affordable and available. Entocycle was chosen as winner of 2018 Pearse Lyons Accelerator because they are addressing those two points."""

Proprietray technology.

"The growth in the world's population is putting strain on traditional food resources, animal protein in particular. World meat and fish production is projected to double by 2050 and all those animals need to be fed. The traditional sources of protein for animals feeds are wild-caught fishmeal and soy meal, the increasing production of which will further contribute to overfishing and deforestation. Fishmeal production has stagnated as wild stocks are suffering the long-term consequences of depletion as a result of heavy overfishing, halving marine populations in the last 4 decades. This led to a 300% increase in fishmeal price over the last decade. Soya production practices need large expanses of land, expensive fertilisers and huge water requirements. Every year, 4 million hectares of rainforests are destroyed to grow soya crops. Additionally, the use of soymeal in aquaculture feed can result in negative effects on the digestive health of fish, leading to an increased use of synthetic immunostimulants and antibiotics. One solution to this problem is to supplement fishmeal and soymeal in animal feeds with insect protein. Insects grow quickly, requiring minimal land and water, while recycling organic waste streams. A new industry - ""insects for feed"" is growing at an unprecedented rate to provide animal feed manufacturers with sustainable insect protein. The majority of insect farmers in this industry are using a species of fly called _Hermetia Illucens_ or the Black Soldier Fly (BSF). The project will allow Beta Bugs to further test, refine and apply a non-GM technique never before applied to BSF giving us the ability to rapidly evolve new strains of BSF which are easier and cheaper for BSF farmers to farm. These strains will then be license to BSF farmers (such as Entocycle) both in the UK and around the world. Beta Bugs believes that the enhanced BSF strains made possible by this technique, and the efficiency and production gains they provide to BSF farmers will be key to unlocking the potential of BSF farming to address the world's growing protein production crisis."

This project aims to address the challenges of increasing rates of waste production, high demand for food and growing pressures on Brazil’s farming land through an innovative efficient recovery of high value compounds using Hermetia illucens (Black Soldier Fly). Its objective is to provide a process to transform organic waste into proteins and lipids which is lean, economically feasible and reproducible at different scales. The technology will be applied primarily to animal feed with the prospect of expanding into other sectors such as cosmetics, paints and lubricants. Results of this project will contribute to establishing large scale rearing of H. illucens through the development of organic residue processing strategy and sustainable product recovery using closed loop processes in 'mild' conditions. The project will combine the knowledge capacity of the UK with practical experience and favourable legislative conditions in Brazil to understand the scalability of H. illucens rearing. Knowledge gained will be used to develop the partners’ operations and engage further partners including Brazilian farmers and small businesses, contributing to Brazil's economic development and citizens' welfare.