Steven Barbosa, Sr. EU Public Affairs Manager, The International Platform of Insects for Food and Feed (IPIFF)

Talk: IPIFF: Policy & Regulatory developments towards an EU growing and promising market for insect-based food and feed

Paul Tossell, Head of Novel Foods and Radiological Policy Team, Food Standards Agency (FSA)

Talk – Insects as novel foods and feed requirements

Paul has been Head of what was at the time the Radiological, GM, Novel Foods and Feed Additives Branch, since January 2019. He has overseen policy development on CBD and novel alternative protein compliance with novel food regulations, including the move towards compliance of edible insects.

Paul has been with the FSA since its formation in 2000, having previously worked for the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF). Other previous roles have been leading on food defence and hypersensitivity.

Maureen Wakefield, Senior Applied Entomologist at Fera Science Limited

Maureen is a research entomologist, with over 33 years’ experience, whose current research interests focus around integrated pest management of agriculturally important invertebrate pests and invasive species and the potential use of insects as a novel source of protein for animal feed and other high value materials .

Maureen has spent her career on research to improve understanding of insect behaviour and chemical ecology, in particular with regard to detection and monitoring and the development of novel control methods, including the use of biological control agents such as parasitoids, predators and entomopathogenic fungi. More recently her research has focussed research on insects as a novel source of protein for animal feed and for other high value materials with an emphasis on insect rearing methodologies and nutrition. This has included involvement in the EU FP7 project PROteINSECT. Maureen is an experienced project manager who has led commercial, government and European Commission funded projects. Maureen is an editor of Journal of Stored Product Research, a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society and a Royal Society Biology Senior Plant Health Professional.

Chris Lyons, Innovation Lead, Innovate UK

Talk: How BBSRC and Innovate UK support collaborative research, knowledge exchange and innovation (Joint with Esther Harper)

Chris Lyons is Agricultural Lead at Innovate UK.  With a background in innovation, funding and grass roots agriculture. Chris currently works with a diverse range of innovative businesses with funded projects across the various agricultural subsectors, with an increasing focus on alternative proteins.

Esther Harper, Senior Portfolio Manager (Farmed Animals), Business Interaction Unit, BBSRC

Esther develops and manages collaborative R&D and knowledge exchange funding opportunities within BBSRC’s farmed animals portfolio, which covers the breadth of livestock agriculture, aquaculture, and insect farming. She connects academia and businesses to co-create and deliver on-farm solutions and translational research impacts. She is interested in learning more about the key challenges and opportunities across the insect farming supply chain, with a particular focus on insect proteins for livestock and companion animal feeds. Her pets enjoy hunting and eating flies.  

Nathalie Berezina, CTO at FlyFeed, PhD

Talk – Insect industry: towards globalisation and maturity, case study – industrial production in Vietnam

Nathalie Berezina is CTO of FlyFeed, an insect farming startup producing protein from black soldier flies. 

Nathalie received MSc in Chemical Engineering at “Grande Ecole” of Mulhouse (ENSCMu) and has a doctorate in Chemistry, from the University of Marseille, France. She was a Board Member & Vice President of the French Chemical Society 2015-2021 and a guest lecturer at ENSCMu, ESTA and AgroParisTech. 

In 2005 Nathalie joined Natiss – Materia Nova, R&D Centre in Belgium, as a senior scientist to work on the microbiological synthesis of polyesters with 33 times productivity improvement. 

In 2014 Nathalie joined Ynsect, an insect biotechnology company, as a CSO & IP, and contributed to company’s growth from 110 M€ to 0,5 B€ valuation.

In 2020 Nathalie founded Norbite, the company transforming plastic waste into sustainable goods by means of an insect-based biorefinery.

Nathalie holds 20 patents, authored more than 30 papers & book chapters, and is a regular speaker and invited lecturer at international conferences.

Nathalie’s LinkedIn

Eva Pasquier, researcher at RISE PFI

Talk – Valorization of chitin from the insect industry into nanofibers and films for packaging applications

Our study has shown that chitin nanofibers extracted from fly larvae (Hermetia Illucens) have similar properties than chitin nanofibers from shrimp in terms of film forming capacity and mechanical properties. Valorization of mealworm farming residues composed of mealworm exuviae, and residual feed have also shown promising results. The potential applications of chitin fibers from insects will be discussed with a particular focus on food packaging.

Eva is a researcher at RISE PFI where she works with the valorization of biobased polymers, like cellulose, lignin and chitin. She received her PhD in materials science from Grenoble Alpes University in 2022.

She has worked on the preparation and characterization of biobased nanoparticles for over 5 years, studying their interactions and the process of combining them into films.

Alexandra (Aly) Haskell, Business Development Associate at Entocycle

Alexandra (Aly) Haskell is a Business Development Associate at Entocycle. As a trained entomologist with more than three years of research and field experience, Aly has a breadth of experience in her industry. Most notably, she worked with the United States Department of Agriculture to manage the Mediterranean fruit fly crisis, as well as the United States Army on several medical entomological projects. 

Aly holds a Bachelor’s degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She has also pursued a Masters of Science in Entomology specializing in Diptera interactions from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. Aly is passionate about sustainable living with a mission to promote the use of insect farming.