J7-3155 - INPROFF

ABOUT 

Food availability from environmentally-sustainable sources is a prerequisite for feeding a growing population and preserving natural resources. One way is to make better use of the diversity that nature offers, with many experts, as evidenced by a plethora of articles promoting the eating of farmed insects (entomophagy) as a way of saving the planet. The advantage of farmed insects, or mini-livestock, includes their high protein and nutritional content, high fertility and reproduction rate, high feed conversion efficiency, rapid growth rates, and low overall ecological footprint. Indeed, insects already play an important role in many peoples’ food culture and security, while in Europe, the thought of consuming bugs provokes disgust and horror. Balancing the advantages and disadvantages of farming insects for both food and feed requires detailed consideration since many questions remain unanswered, and further studies and monitoring are needed regarding farmed insect products’ quality, safety, and authenticity.

PROJECT FOUNDERS

INPROFF is a 3-year interdisciplinary bilateral project co-funded by the  Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) / Czech Science Foundation (GACR) that aims to close the knowledge gap regarding the quality and safety of insect-based products and boost the farmed insect food and value chain.

 PROJECT TEAMS

Jožef Stefan Institute

David Heath

Nives Ogrinc

Bor Krajnc

Doris Potočnik

Lidija Strojnik

Ester heath

Ana Kovačič

Barbara Koroušič-Seljak

University of Ljubljana, BIOTECHNICAL FACULTY

Nataša Poklar Ulrih

Mojca Korošec

Polona Jamnik

Barbka Jeršek

Emona RCP d.o.o.

Matjaž Cervek

Objective 1 (WP2) Insect Production and Characterisation: INPROFF will rear target insect species under controlled environmental conditions and characterise their nutritional value and microbial safety

Objective 2 (WP3) Nutritional Enhancement: The goal is to improve the functional value of farmed insect biomass.

Objective 3 (WP4) Enhanced Quality and Safety: INPROFF will develop analytical protocols for characterising insect-based products’ chemical and biological safety.

Objective 4 (WP5) Authenticity and Traceability: Develop forensic tools for establishing the authenticity of farmed insect-based products and establish a database of authentic products.

Department of Microbiology, Nutrition and Dietetics

Lenka Kouřimská Hana

Salmonová Šubrtová

Ivo Doskočil

Martin Kulma

Roman Švejstil

Dora Petříčková

Monika Sabolová

Petra Škvorová

Tereza Kodešová

Marie Průchová

Barbora Lampová

Štěpánka Kozáková

Michal Kurečka