The French biotech firm Ÿnsect plans to open 15 mealworm factories by 2030. We seemed inside their pilot plant to see what the way forward for meals would possibly appear to be
Environment
11 January 2023
Ÿnsect’s mealworm pilot manufacturing unit in Dole, France Ÿnsect
It is winter within the French city of Dole, however contained in the manufacturing unit the place I’m standing, the temperature is above 25°C (80°F) and the humid air has a particular earthy odour. Robot arms and automatic conveyor belts transport stacks of purple trays in each course. The trays are crammed with the manufacturing unit’s uncooked materials: billions of Tenebrio molitor beetle larvae, generally often called mealworms.
This automated mealworm nursery and slaughterhouse is the blueprint for a world community of insect farms …