European Union and UK open doors to Malaysian insect producers

In June of 2022, insect producers in Malaysia became eligible to export insect-based material to the European Union (EU) for the first time, following Malaysia's inclusion on the list of countries approved to export insects and insect-based products to the EU, joining a small selection of countries including Canada, Switzerland, the UK and South Korea, with permission to do so. This is a boon for the Malaysian economy, a major food producer which is heavily reliant on agricultural exports.

On the 19 February 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture approved Nutrition Technologies to export its insect meal and oil into the EU and UK markets, making it one of a handful of companies around the world, and the first in Malaysia with this level of approval. Previously only able to access European insect-based products, this development opens the doors for the rapidly growing sustainable petfood sector in Europe to access high quality, low-energy insect-based materials.

Nutrition Technologies manufactures and supplies insect protein meal, oil and frass (insect manure) to help feed the growing agriculture and feed industries around the world. Using a combination of beneficial microbes and Black Soldier Fly Larvae (BSFL) using a low-energy, zero-waste production model to grow their insects, the larvae are reared on clean and traceable agro-industrial by-products.

The insect-based products are suitable for application in petfood, livestock and aquatic feed, and have a range of proven functional benefits which improve the animals' health and growth. The insect meal is also suitable for therapeutic applications in pets that have allergies to common petfood proteins such as beef and lamb. What's attractive to many manufacturers is the potential impact on GHG emissions that can be achieved through switching to insect-based meats in place of traditional protein sources, as approximately 25% of the GHGs associated with meat production is generated through use in petfood. As tropically farmed insects produce a fraction of the GHG emissions of traditional meat, this enables manufacturers to make further improvements to the carbon footprint of petfood production.

The Malaysian insect meal is produced to the highest international safety and hygiene standards with full batch traceability, where the larvae are fed only vegetable-based agro-industrial materials such as palm and grain by-products. The insect meal is fully compliant with EU regulations, and the facility is both GMP & HACCP certified.