Beta Bugs at BSF CON and Insecta
A run down of team Beta Bugs’ recent events
Beta Bugs on the Road
It has been a busy couple of weeks for Beta Bugs with conferences across the UK and Europe! The team gained some invaluable knowledge from their recent conferences via insightful oral presentations and keynote speakers, panels and poster presentations. They also met other insect farming key players on the Beta Bugs exhibition booth, networked with stakeholders, customers and academia whilst educating guests on selective breeding in the form of oral and poster presentations and taking part in panel discussions!
THE FIRST BSFCON
A conference dedicated entirely to the Black Soldier Fly
BSFCON co-organised by Better Origin and the University of Cambridge, was a two-day meeting focused on the biological and industrial applications of Hermetia illucens, with keynotes from world-leading experts in both academia and industry, held in the Fisher Building of St John’s College, in Cambridge. Sessions covered a diverse range of topics such as genetics, physiology, nutrition, feedstocks,and technological advancements. Specialised discussion panels, poster sessions and networking breaks helped to disseminate research and industry experience. There was also some food for thought from the keynote speakers; Jeffery K Tomberlin, Christoph Sandrock, Christine Picard, Yongping Huang and Rozane Badenhorst.
Beta Bugs was proud to sponsor the 1st BSFCON along with some other industry key players; The Genetics Society, BugEra, Insect Engineers, and NRGene.
Beta Bugs CEO and Founder, Thomas Farrugia attended the two day event alongside Beta Bugs Business Development Director, Desmond Cave. The duo welcomed attendees to the Beta Bugs sponsor stall, where they had in depth conversations on the benefits of insect rearing and how the process can be implemented into current processes. Thomas also took part in one of the panel discussions on ‘Regulatory Change and Landscapes’ while Desmond Cave presented a talk to the BSFCON audience on ‘Selective Breeding in the Black Soldier Fly’.
Here’s what the Beta Bugs CEO had to say about BSFCON;
“It’s great to see our industry – commercial players, stakeholders, academics all come together under one roof at BSFCon ’23 to share their results, learnings and observations. Being together in person, communicating, cracking jokes, whilst also learning and identifying opportunities for collaboration and synergy is what will accelerate our sector’s growth. Events like BSFCon 23 ensure that together we will make Black Soldier Fly bioconversion part of everyone’s everyday.”
– Thomas Farrugia, Founder and CEO @ Beta Bugs Ltd
An Overview of Insecta 2023
INSECTA 2023 was held on September 13-14, 2023, in Magdeburg, Germany. The event represented more than 70 different companies and 33 universities/institutions to discuss various topics related to insects ranging from processing & commercialization, breeding, application in non-food, nutritive value, genetics, application of artificial intelligence, application of sensor technology, and many more. The three parallel sessions comprising of 22 sessions and 40 posters which allowed academics, scientists, industry professionals to not only exchange their ideas with one another but provided a platform to plan our future collectively. The Insecta programme covered topics across the entire value chain of insects including; insect rearing and production systems, insect processing for food and feed, safety and environmental aspects, non-food application of insects, evaluation of the use of insects and insect health and welfare.
There were also three keynote speakers, Dr. Christin Manthey from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Francis Maugère – Political Adviser, Eurogroup for Animals and Urs Liebau from the August-Wilhelm Scheer Institut für digitale Produkte und Prozesse gGmbH, whom all gave inspiring and thought-provoking presentations on the insect industry.
Beta Bugs were proud to be one of the industry sponsors at this years Insecta alongside some other big players in the insect farming scene including; VDI, VDL Insect Systems, Beekenkamp Verpakkingen B.V., Livin’ Farms AgriFood GmbH, NETZSCH Trockenmahltechnik GmbH, ANDRITZ Separation, Royal Dutch Kusters Engineering, REINARTZ GmbH & Co. KG, WEDA – Dammann & Westerkamp GmbH, Viscon Insect Technology, NRGene, SCHAUER Agrotronic GmbH, Entocycle, Bühler and InsectoCycle.
Business Development Director, Desmond Cave, R&D Manager, Dr.Isobel Swinscoe and Creative Marketing and Media Manager, Nicola Gardner MCIM attended the two day event and welcomed guests to their sponsor stall where they discussed all things Black Soldier Fly.
R&D Manager, Dr. Isobel Swinscoe was on hand for any questions regarding her poster presentation on ‘Performance of Selectively Bred Black Soldier Fly Larvae in a Production Facility’ and Business Development Director, Desmond Cave welcomed questions after his presentation on ‘Selective Breeding in the Black Soldier Fly’, which proved a very popular event amongst attendees!
UPCOMING EVENTS
BFREPA
The Beta Bugs team are attending the BFREPA Conference. BFREPA are hosting the 2023 National Free Range Show at the Telford International Centre on Wednesday 15th November 2023, in association with the Pullet Hatcheries & Breeders Association, in partnership with Noble Foods, and sponsored by Newquip, ForFarmers, Elanco and Boehringer Ingelheim.
IPIFF Annual Conference
Desmond Cave, Business Development Director at Beta Bugs will be attending the IPIFF Annual Conference ‘Empowering Europe: Food Security, Bioeconomy & Insects’. The conference will take place on the 15th of November 2023, at the Bedford Hotel Brussels, rue du Midi 135.
BETA BUGS SECURES £1.72M TO SCALE UP SUSTAINABLE INSECT FARMING
Beta Bugs Limited has secured £1.72M investment to scale-up the production, sale and supply of its Black Soldier Fly eggs and larvae to the insect farming sector, as a sustainable alternative to current sources of protein for animal feed.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE here
If you have any questions about Beta Bugs or require any further information on our products or our Beta Buzz publication and how you can contribute to the upcoming issue, please do get in touch at info@betabugs.uk, outlining your query and one of the Beta Bugs team members will get back to you.
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