Inside Green Innovation: Progress Report - Fourth Edition highlights:
- Global insect protein filings fall for the second year in a row. South Korean filings remained strong, while European filings decreased unexpectedly.
- Previous top-filers may have focussed on scaling up operations, as record-breaking vertical farms are established or planned across the world.
- Regulation and opposition continue to be stumbling blocks for human consumption of insect-based products in some jurisdictions.
- However, there is regulatory success in some jurisdictions, especially Singapore.
- The use of insect waste (known as frass) for fertiliser is a growing area of innovation within the industry.
Insects are now identified as a key source of protein to help feed the rapidly growing population and reduce the environmental impact of the food supply chain. According to the United Nations (UN), the world population is projected to reach 8.5b in 2030 and 9.7b in 2050. Meanwhile, the global human food system is considered the primary driver of biodiversity loss worldwide. Insect protein production requires a fraction of the feed, space and water per kilogram of protein compared to more conventional protein sources, such as meat. In addition, insects can consume organic waste, produce less CO2 and grow quickly, making them an ideal green protein source. Insects are already a part of the staple diet of a significant proportion of the world’s population, and there are ongoing efforts to expand insect consumption into western culture. For instance, groups like the International Platform of Insects for Food and Feed (IPIFF) promote insect farming in the EU. As Europe does not have a history of insect consumption, the European Union (EU) designated whole insects and insect ingredients as “novel foods”, which require additional regulatory approval before entering the market. As the EU issues these approvals, the market is expected to expand rapidly. Despite this, insect protein continues to be a contentious topic in Europe. Italy has pushed back with strict rules on labelling of insect-derived products and has even proposed banning insect products in pizza and pasta. However, there are positive signs elsewhere, as a German ice-cream parlour made headlines for serving cricket-flavoured ice cream topped with whole dried insects.
Consumption of insects in Asia is less controversial but still not commonplace across the continent. Perception appears to be changing quickly though. For example, following a public consultation, Singapore has approved sixteen species of insect for human and livestock consumption in 2024. While consumer appetites continue to challenge the adoption of insect-derived protein for human consumption in some regions, insect farming may help to improve the environmental impact of human food systems in other ways. For example, insect protein production promises to reduce the carbon footprint of animal farming by incorporating insect-derived products into animal feeds to displace less sustainable protein sources. This may help to reduce over-fishing of small fish, such as sardines, which are often used to provide protein in feed for larger farmed fish. The waste produced by insects (known as “frass”) has even shown promise as a fertiliser for crops, which could enable a circular economy. With considerable support from international bodies such as the UN, insect protein could be an increasingly significant part of global food culture in the future. This report will examine how and where the industry is innovating in this important field, using patent filing data.
Global patent activity
Global innovation, as demonstrated by new patent filings slowed in 2022, continuing the downward trend seen in last year’s Inside Green Innovation: Progress Report.
Figure 1: Global priority filings (1982-2022) - insect protein innovations
(Priority filing = the first time a patent application for a unique invention has been filed (the first filing))
The rate of decrease in patent filings has slowed since last year, suggesting that filing activity may be settling at a level above that seen before the COVID-19 pandemic. As observed in other fields, a spike in 2020 may reflect companies using the opportunity of the pandemic disruption to prepare and file applications, followed by a lull due to reduced research activity in 2020/2021.
Priority applications in Europe saw a late peak in 2021 and were narrowing the gap with South Korea. However, European applications have dropped by almost a third moving into 2022. Again, this could be a result of delayed impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, or possibly a result of the slower adoption of insect protein in western diets.
The pre-market authorisation process may also have affected the market in Europe. EU pre-market authorisations may require approval from the European Food Standards Agency (EFSA), making this a lengthy process. However, some progress to date has been made with authorisation for six insect foods and the eighth positive EFSA opinion on an insect-derived food was published in July 2024 (for house cricket powder). The UK appears to be lagging in this respect. The EU regulations were retained in the UK following Brexit but, as of the start of 2024, organisations have submitted novel food applications in the UK for only four species and none are authorised yet.
Figure 2: Twenty-year trend (2003-2022) - priority filings by jurisdiction - insect protein innovations
However, not all jurisdictions reflect this continued decrease in filings, suggesting that this is not a global issue. After a spike in 2020 and corresponding drop in 2021, South Korean priority applications increased again slightly in 2022. As discussed in our article on plant-based proteins, South Korea appears to have a rapidly growing industry for meat substitutes, especially since the pandemic. Interestingly, Russia and Indonesia have both recorded all-time highs for new priority applications. The number of unique applicants also continued to fall in 2022, suggesting a concentration of innovation towards a smaller number of companies and institutions. Uncertainty in regulatory approval and public perception in parts of the world may still be putting off new entrants into the field.
Table 1: Top priority filers globally (2012-2022)
The top filers of 2022 cover a wide spread of technologies and applications, including the improvement of breeding machinery, beneficial effects of insect-based animal feed and the treatment of frass. The Republic of Korea Rural Development Administration (RDA) remains a consistent presence among the top filers, taking the top spot this year. The subjects of their patent applications ranged from feed compositions for breeding caterpillar larvae to the treatment of muscular atrophy using mealworm larvae extract. Feng Xi Hong Healthy Biotechnology Co. Ltd (also known as Hesiang Industrial Ltd.) has also been highly active in Taiwan and Japan. With no apparent history of filings in this area, Feng Xi filed a series of applications relating to fortification of milk and eggs by including black soldier fly ingredients in feed for hens and cattle. Buehler AG, a Swiss plant manufacturer, has reinvigorated its patent filings after a quiet year in 2021, with applications covering various machinery for feeding, breeding and sorting insects. Gamnong, SRC, a Korean Farming Association has filed its first applications in the same technology area. Several of 2021’s top filers show decreased filing activity in 2022. Innovafeed filed two priority applications relating to the treatment and processing of insect frass, and Ÿnsect filed just one priority application in 2022, for an optical device for monitoring insect breeding. Entomo and Protix, which both featured in last year’s report, do not appear to have filed new applications in this field in 2022. Many of the industry leaders are focussing on scaling up of operations, however, 2022 was a significant year for the scale-up of Ÿnsect’s manufacturing as they opened the “ŸnFarm” in northern France, intended to be the world’s largest vertical farm when at full capacity. Similarly, Innovafeed announced a partnership with major US milling company ADM in 2021, to set up a new facility in Illinois which is intended to become the largest in North America. The focus of Innovafeed’s 2022 applications on frass appears to correlate with this, as the company intends the Illinois facility to work symbiotically with ADM’s corn processing facilities in the region. This means the insect waste could be used as corn fertiliser and the corn waste as insect feed. Looking within the global dataset at the more specific technology area of insect frass and fertiliser reveals that, while based on a small subset of applications, these are at an all-time high. This suggests that more companies are looking to ways of maximising the potential and minimising the environmental impact of insect farming.
Figure 3: Twenty-year trend (2003-2022) - all filers - applications relating to insect frass or fertiliser
Looking ahead
Pioneers in this budding industry continue to push innovation in new directions. For example, Ÿnsect has recently announced production of a “world’s first” genotyping chip for insects, developed to allow insect farms to easily select for beneficial traits while maintaining genetic diversity. We have so far found very few published applications relating to genotyping and look forward to seeing future developments and corresponding patent filings for this technology.
While innovation in the form of priority applications slowed further in 2022, companies in the insect farming industry continued to receive significant funding. For example, Entobel raised USD20m in a funding round in 2022. Whether the slow-down in patent filing activity is a result of the pandemic, the global economic situation, or simply due to larger companies focussing on other areas, is unclear at this stage. However, there appears to still be plenty of ambition coming from the industry leaders in this sector.
