RHEWUM has developed a screening procedure gentle to mealworms and other insects

Mealworms as a source of protein is more and more commonly accepted as a climate friendly alternative to meat.

Like many insects, meal worms are a source of high quality protein. Compared to other domestic animals, raising and breeding them is much more climate friendly, which means that mealworms are steadily gaining importance as part of a sustainable diet. The worms grow from egg to larvae in large farms.

Separating the mature worms both from their food substrate and the juvenile animals that are not yet ready for processing is a complex step in production. The animals must neither be squashed nor subjected to high accelerations, but on the other hand you need to get them to jump up, and mealworms seem to actively hold on to the screening mesh. RHEWUM tackled these issues by developing together with some scientific experts a new efficient screening procedure which is as animal-friendly as possible.

The new screening machine which was designed and constructed especially for the many mealworm farms is equipped with a specially coated directly excited mesh. Over several steps, mealworms are gently separated from their food substrate and sorted into three different categories of size. This makes it possible to reintroduce juveniles below market size to their habitat. Next to these special screening machines, other RHEWUM screening lines use directly excited screening meshes and several steps to separate side products from the substrate for further processing or reuse.

This animal friendly and at the same time highly efficient technology is suitable for the enormous quantity of mealworms that are processed in large mealworm farms.

The first machines have been produced and will help the industry in producing climate friendly proteins.