Experiences: Insekt Label Biotech S.L

Please tell us what your business offers

Insekt Label Biotech wants to be a sustainable and nutritional alternative for the agri-food revolution taking place in these early days of the 21st century.

We develop sustainable and health matter from insects, and particularly three products: soluble protein concentrates, fibre/chitin and lipid concentrates, all organic in origin and locally produced.

What’s your added value?

Over and above all of the nutritional and environmental values obtained by using insects and their processed goods in food, we are developing products of greater value for the beverage, functional food and nutraceutical markets.

This fact has forced us to try different transformation technologies and to focus on those which enable us to introduce the advantages of insects to non-solid products. We have progressed from talking about flour as an end product, to talking about protein concentrates.

On the other hand, our activity in hydrolysing insects opens a highly interesting branch for the future, given that their bioactivity and health applications are also a distinguishing factor.

Who makes up your company?

Josu Oleaga Nuño (CEO) , David Ávila Blanco (Production Director), Eztizen Quintela Sobrino (R&D Director)

What have been your main challenges during these months and how have you dealt with them?

Our biggest problem has been the regulatory uncertainty which continues to surround insect farming across Europe today. Since its acceptance as Novel Food in 2018, steps have continued to take place, the last one in January 2020 when the EFSA accepted the Tenebrio Molitor or Yellow Mealworm as a “safe” species. While it seems very close, the situation is still not 100% in place, and this makes potential partners, investors, institutions, etc. hesitate, meaning that they are unable to support us the way we would like them to do. We can’t set a definite date of entry to the market, and it doesn’t depend on us. However, we have seen that in our current phase, there is a clear-cut profile which does see sense in starting to collaborate. This is the case of the industrialists who had already identified insects as an alternative source and who also see them as an opportunity in the medium term.

As a result of the above and of the unusual year we have lived, we have been able to make progress in 3 main lines:

• Facilities: We have opened a pilot insect farming plant in Zamudio
• Product and technology dev.: Progressing from flour to several extracts, some with bioactive properties.
• Market: We have been able to accelerate discussions with companies in the sector, with particular interest being shown by two benchmark companies in the zone, with which we will shortly start to design products.

What new projects are you working on?

The main line of research and development we address is food and its relationship with health. Our main lines are therefore as follows:

• Incorporation of soluble protein concentrates to different media (aqueous, dairy…) to achieve functional nutrition for the elderly and oncology patients.
• Optimisation of the transformation process.
• Vehiculation or encapsulation of certain products: Omega 3.

On the other hand, we also have to make improvements to the pilot plant with our sights set on the time when we can commercialise throughout Europe. This means that we will have to make a series of investments.

We are also developing a range of healthy and “entovegan” snacks with insect flour. We believe this is a way to start working on the cultural barrier or, at least, of being able to work with a new movement that we believe is here to stay.

How do you see the company in 10 years?

I think that the main jump will lie in scale, both with respect to production and to transformation. Like any industry, we must take a great leap forward, and if we take as a reference the expansion already being made by the leaders of the sector (15,000-20,000 m2), it becomes rather obvious that we must either reach industrial scale or that we won’t go very far.

As far as products are concerned, I see Insekt Label with a wider range of products, both due to working with some other kind of species and for having come up with some other kind of transformation technique for the current species. I see myself as a European benchmark in insect transformation for the nutraceutical market.

Lastly, despite the current B2B business model, I see Insekt Label Biotech launching end/own products onto the market.

How has the Basque public sector helped you?

As we said above, to date we have been unable to collaborate with the public sector to the extent that we would have liked, mainly due to regulatory uncertainty. Insekt Label Biotech has received three kinds of backing from the public institutions:

• On the one hand, the backing received from BEAZ within the Creation of Innovative Companies programme.
• Secondly, during 2020 we developed an R&D project funded by the Basque Government, where we were able to design and measure the impact of incorporating several by-products to the diet of the insects themselves; this was a very interesting circular economy project.
• Lastly, also in 2020, we were part of the Hegaztinsekt cooperation project in collaboration with other companies such as Neiker, Miba and Incubadoras Cosa/Grupo AN.

What would be your recommendation to somebody who’s starting out?

Looking back, and unlike ourselves, I would recommend that they have a clear-cut market entry strategy from day 1, and also that they reduce regulatory uncertainty. In other words, that they are very sure of what they want to do and what they can do from the very beginning.

Apart from this, simply that they believe in themselves, that they get moving, that they knock on all doors, and that they have no fear of telling people about and sharing their idea and action.

It may also seem obvious, but in our case we are a multidisciplinary team who complement one another very well. We also have another series of “partners-advisors” who are more senior and have other areas of knowledge which make the project even more interesting and we all move in an environment where we learn and challenge ourselves as a group.

If you have any other question you’d like to be asked or you’d like to mention, please indicate it here.

Insekt Label Biotech was one of the 4 projects to have received acceleration under the BBK Venture Philanthropy (BBK and Ship 2B) impact programme.

Do you think the market is ready to include crickets in its everyday diet?

In the Basque Country, as it stands today and generally speaking, I would say no. However, it does seem that some targets are welcoming insects as a real alternative, such as in the case of athletes. On the other hand, we also see among the younger and more travelled generations a greater willingness to consume this kind of products.

As far as the European market is concerned, in countries like the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Finland and Switzerland, the sustainable and alternative food market is much more mature, and these are also the places where the acceptance of insects is more advanced.

In any event, there is also another factor which currently hinders that acceptance, which is the continuing high price of insects and their derivatives on the market.

When will it become an everyday part of food in our homes?

By the end of the year, and perhaps even a little before then, we should see regulatory progress which will enable the Basque Country to come up to par with the situation in other European countries. This must be the first step for production companies to see it as a possibility which is more realistic and closer to the market, which would mean even greater acceleration with respect to investments in this field.

On the other hand, I believe that a great deal of progress is required in the sector itself with respect to being able to offer a more competitive price.

Between one thing and another, I believe that a logical scenario for everyday products including the Yellow Mealworm or Crickets (the two most advanced species) may be from 3-5 years. Of course, those wishing to adopt new consumption habits or simply looking for a new way of eating, will be able to do so from this year on, given that the rhythm of launching new brands and products is growing at vertiginous speed in Europe.

How would traditional animal food live alongside alternative laboratory proteins?

Considering the extent of the food challenge we face in the coming decades, I believe that all new alternatives and innovations must be accepted and welcomed; both improvements in the more conventional sources and the appearance of solutions fostering a totally different scenario. What is obvious is that sustainability, to a greater or lesser degree, must be the driving power of these new innovations.

What I do see as a very logical complimentary aspect to insects is the growth of proteins or vegetable sources. Both at nutritional level, and at those of synergies when generating totally circular economies.

I believe that several years of sweeping changes in this sector lie ahead of us, entertaining years which will mark the future of what we eat.