Bühler provides technology solutions for the growth and processing of insects to enable industrial-scale transformation of organic residues into high-value insect-based ingredients. With experience in running installations, proven innovations, and a strong research and development pipeline Bühler will play a key role in developing this nascent industry sector to reduce the CO₂ footprint of meat production. And the company doesn’t stop there.

Bühler has announced another step in its insect production and processing capabilities. The company’s unique larvae storage system allows full decoupling of insect rearing from processing, which gives outstanding flexibility in the operational schedule. Bühler’s technology succeeded the field test and is now ready for broad industrial use.

Last year, after four years of close collaboration, Bühler reached the major milestone with one of its partners, Protix, as their fully automated industrial black soldier fly processing plant in Bergen Op Zoom in North Brabant, Netherlands, reached its full processing capacity. This marks a proof point in the insect industry and the successful completion of the joint venture between Bühler and Protix.

“We congratulate Kees Aarts and his team at Protix on the extraordinary achievement of their insect protein facility. To be the pioneer in an industry is a challenging role, and to be the first to deliver a commercially viable, large-scale insect plant is a significant step on their ambitious journey,” says Ian Roberts, CTO at Bühler. “We extend our sincere thanks to Kees and his team for this collaboration.”

“I am pleased that Bühler is ready and able to address the insect market with proven technologies and I am excited by the pipeline of projects building up. I am looking forward to seeing new projects realized, thus contributing to achieve Bühler’s sustainability targets,” says Andreas Baumann, Managing Director of the Bühler Insect Technology business.

“We believe that insect-based ingredients offer a new category of nutrition for the food system. The realization of such a new category demands a total ecosystem approach with multiple parties collaborating intensely,” says Kees Aarts, CEO and founder of Protix. “At Protix we work with multiple parties to advance the advent of sustainable nutrition enabling a food system in balance with nature. The collaboration with Bühler is a strong example of that. We will further support the growth of the industry and are convinced that further collaborations are needed to achieve important milestones on our journey.”

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