Sens Insects

Projectname:
Development of economic, informative and practical insect quality classes, the associated measurement technology and a processing guide

Workgroup: Plant-based foods

Research Partner and Scientific Guidance:

  1. Fraunhofer-Institut für Molekularbiologie und Angewandte Oekologie IME, Institutsteil Bioressourcen, Till Röthig
  2. Fraunhofer-Institut für Verfahrenstechnik und Verpackung IVV Dresden, Chris Henze

IGF: 22548 BG
Financing: BMWK
Laufzeit: 2023 – 2025

A new industry sector for the production of insects and insect proteins for food and feed is emerging in Germany. This new industry holds great promise for transforming the economy into a sustainable and circular one. So far, insect production has been costly due to the high level of manual labour required and the lack of standards. Sens Insects aims to address this by classifying qualitative features of insects and insect meal, such as colour or physiological composition.

This classification is also carried out through sensor technology that can be employed by small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). The products are classified into quality classes, taking food and feed standards into account. Sens Insects further ensures an automated and safe qualitative categorization of insect products by combining certain low-cost sensory modules. These modules lay the foundation for a demonstrator that is being developed to automatically determine the quality class of insects and insect meal. Further automatization of insect production may link in here.

Based on the quality classes, Sens Insects will provide a processing guide for SMEs to maintain qualitative standards when processing insects to insect meal. The processing guide and the quality classes provide much-needed standards to reduce the costs of insect production and create consumer confidence. Sens Insects therefore provides a promising option for German companies looking to establish themselves in this emerging industry.

The IGF project presented here by the Research Association of the Industrial Association for Food Technology and Packaging (IVLV e.V.) is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action as part of the program for the promotion of industrial community research (IGF) based on a decision of the German Bundestag.