Danish company builds the North’s largest insect factory

Insects as food is still mostly viewed as a funny gimmick. But now the Danish feed – and food company Enorm Biofactory wants to produce 100 tons maggots per day.

In a closed chicken farm outside of Horsens, Denmark, millions of smaller residents are now beginning to move in. Here the company Enorm Biofactory is developing the largest insect factory in the Nordic countries, that eventually aim to produce 100 tons maggots every single day.

The maggots will be dried and crushed to high-protein powder and fat, that will be used as animal feed. First off, the feed will primarily be used for fish cultivation and hopefully later also for pigs and chickens. Sometime in the future, once the market´s openness to meat-alternatives is big enough, the company aim to also transform the maggots into food products for humans.

“It is the largest investment in insects in this scale, and with these ambitions, ever seen in the country”, says Jane Lind Sam – partner in Enorm Biofactory.

An efficient organism

The maggots are incredibly efficient compared to other productive livestock, converting 10 kilos feed into 9 kilos larvae, explains Jane Lind Sam.

At the same time, the maggots are not picky. They gladly eat all sorts of waste products from the food industry, while also growing very fast. This means that they are ready for harvest after just 17 days.

All in all, this means that the maggots are a highly sustainable source of protein for humans, , both in terms of CO2-emissions and requirements for feed, water and storage space.

Full speed on the fly-farm

Even though the company is a long way from reaching their goal of producing 100 tons maggots per day, and both the market and legislation on insects as food, still provides constant struggles, there is no shortage of ideas and optimism:

“In the future we could feed our larvae with food waste from household trash, potentially even manure. That would be even more sustainable, but it is unfortunately not legal in the EU yet. However, it would solve some of our trash-issues, while also assisting the production of sustainable protein”, says Jane Lind Sam.

Source: www.verdensmaal.org