Pest is best: Bengaluru start-up’s sustainable, insect-rich recipe for animal feed Premium

The global demand for protein has only been increasing over the years – not just for human consumption but also for livestock, poultry and fish feed, pet food, cosmetic ingredients and more.

The global demand for protein has only been increasing over the years – not just for human consumption but also for livestock, poultry and fish feed, pet food, cosmetic ingredients and more.

The flip side of this has been the extreme exploitation of the marine ecosystem for fish and other marine organisms that are rich protein sources.

But what if the demand for protein-rich ingredients could be met by something else more sustainably?

Insects, icky as they may sound to a few, are rich sources of protein and abundantly available.

Loopworm, an agri-biotechnology start-up based out of Bengaluru, uses these qualities of insects to make sustainable alternative ingredients for animal feed.

Abhi Gawri and Ankit Alok Bagaria, both graduates of IIT-Roorkee, met in 2017. A conversation about the potential of making value-added products out of organic rejects and a UN report that stated insects as the future of food and feed sowed in them the idea of Loopworm.

“Insects are nature’s scavengers. They eat crop biomass and organic waste. It helps nature. And ultimately, they are a treasure trove of nutrition. They are like nature’s bioreactor and concentrator. And they convert waste into valuable products,” points out Bagaria, cofounder at Loopworm.