Eco-innovative technologies for sustainable exploitation of macromolecules from insects as alternative resource in bioeconomy

ended

The overall aim of the inTECH project is to develop eco-innovative technological solutions for sustainable exploitation of insects into key macromolecules. The inTECH is built on the applicant’s existing technical and research competencies in the area of novel processing and extraction technologies thus enabling her to transfer these skills to develop and optimise eco-innovative technologies for sustainable exploitation of insect fractions including proteins, lipids and chitin for potential food applications. Insect derived proteins are of interest as a sustainable substitute for conventional sources of proteins commonly employed for food and feed applications. Currently, employed extraction techniques are not environmental friendly and mainly rely on the use of solvents. The inTECH project will investigate and develop key eco-innovative processing/extraction technologies platform that have a proven track record in their ability to enhance extraction yields and that are also environment friendly. The innovative aspect of inTECH project will be to develop first-of-a-kind technological toolbox of pretreatment, extraction, processing and drying techniques suitable for house crickets while adopting a zero-waste process for holistic utilisation of all insect fractions. It is expected that the inTECH project will address EU’s challenge of protein deficits and contribute towards sustainable bioeconomy.