The Ministry of Agriculture has granted Nutrition Technologies permission to export its insect meal and oil into the UK and EU from Malaysia.

This decision marks the first Malaysian based producer to be given approval following June 2022, a month wher insect producers in Malaysia became eligible to export insect-based material to the EU for the first time.

As well as Malaysia, the list of countries now allowed to export insects and insect-based products to the EU include Canada, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and South Korea.

Using a combination of microbes and Black Soldier Fly Larvae (BSFL), using a “low-energy zero-waste” production model to grow its insects, the larvae are then reared on clean and traceable agro-industrial by-products.

Nutrition Technologies has said that the insect-based products are suitable for application in pet food, livestock and aquatic feed, and “have a range of proven functional benefits which improve the animals’ health and growth”.

It has also claimed that the insect meal is suitable for therapeutic applications in pets that have allergies to common pet food proteins such as beef and lamb.

Now the gates are open to Malaysian insect producers to distribute their products into the UK and EU, other producers worldwide may be keen to keep their eye on the European consumer response to its new found availability.