Project description
Innovative technology for sustainable insect farming
Insect farming is mostly manual. However, innovation is on its way. New technologies can help the insect farming industry become sustainable and make it accessible to large-scale factories, SMEs and individual farmers. In this context, the EIC project FreezeM will provide ready-to-use black soldier fly (BSF) eggs or neonates to rearing facilities worldwide to make insect farming sustainable, steady and scalable. Specifically, this method of insect egg cryopreservation and suspended animation of neonate larvae allows to disengage, for the first time, the breeding (reproduction) from the rearing (larva growth and processing) steps in the insect production supply chain. The technology retains the insects’ traits, allowing them to complete their life cycle and function in the post-preservation state.
Objective
FreezeM is making insect farming sustainable, steady & scalable by providing ready-to-use BSF eggs or neonates to rearing facilities worldwide.
Through its novel technologies - insect eggs cryopreservation and suspended animation of neonate larvae, FreezeM enables for the first time to decouple the breeding (reproduction) from the rearing (larva growth & processing) steps in the insect protein production supply chain, and by that makes insect farming more efficient and accessible to everyone: large-scale factories, SMEs, or sole farmers.
FreezeM creates new products in the market: ready-to-use insect eggs and neonates with extended shelf-life to be shipped worldwide, enhancing the insect protein industry.
The novel patent-pending technology retains the insects’ traits, allowing them to complete their life cycle and function normally after exiting the preservation state. This makes FreezeM the equivalent of an agriculture seed company in the emerging market of insect farming.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
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Funding Scheme
HORIZON-AG - HORIZON Action Grant Budget-BasedCoordinator
4630754 HERZELIA
Israel
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.