ASIFF news

What does “quality” mean for edible insects?

If you haven’t taken part in this study yet, now is the moment.

The working group Insects Food Ingredients and Foods of ASIFF (Academic Society of Insects as Food and Feed) is building an expert-validated framework for edible insect quality. We are looking for people who work with insects as food: producers, processors, food safety and regulatory specialists, and researchers.

⏱️ 10 minutes
🔗 How do you define and monitor edible insect quality? A survey – Fill in form

Maryia Mishyna, Dr Vusi KaMshayisa 🇿🇦 (PhD, Pr. Sci. Nat), Daylan A. Tzompa-Sosa, Rodrigo Zorrilla González, PhD, Agnieszka Orkusz, Faith Angeline Manditsera, Marios Psarianos, Javier Sayles, Diana Bogueva – Koprinkova, Matthias Gosselin, PhD, Stéphanie Crabeck PhD, Kashif ur Rehman, Violet Gwokyalya

ASIFF Council News

The ASIFF (Academic Society of Insects as Food and Feed) Council met on July 9 to continue advancing initiatives that support our growing international community and the development of the insect sector.

Among the highlights of this meeting:
🌍 Our community continues to grow, now bringing together 148 members from 43 countries, reflecting the increasing global interest in insects as food and feed.
📢 Communication efforts are being strengthened, with monthly newsletters, improved member engagement, and website enhancements to better serve our community.
🏆 Congratulations to the recipients of the IFW2026 Best Poster and Best Oral Presentation Awards! Your excellent work contributes to advancing our field and inspiring future research.
📅 Looking ahead to IFW2028 in Adelaide, the Council discussed lessons learned from Turin and identified several recommendations to further enhance future conferences, including stronger networking opportunities, dedicated poster sessions, and increased interaction among ASIFF Working Groups.
🤝 Working Groups continue to expand. We are pleased to see new initiatives emerging, including a Working Group on Insect Feed from Food Ruminants. Discussions also continue on a proposed Insects and Circular Economy/Waste Management Working Group to ensure complementarity with existing activities.
🚀 The Council also continued developing ASIFF’s future sponsorship program, which aims to strengthen collaboration between academia and industry while supporting the Society’s long-term mission.

A sincere thank you to all Council members, Working Group leaders, volunteers, and our members for their continued commitment to advancing insect as Food and Feed worldwide.

2000 followers

🎉 ASIFF (Academic Society of Insects as Food and Feed) just hit 2,000 followers on LinkedIn!

To everyone who follows, shares, and engages with ASIFF work on insects as food and feed, thank you.

ASIFF awards

ASIFF (Academic Society of Insects as Food and Feed) was proud and honored to recognize Evelynn Vervoort with the Best Poster Presentation award for poster “Characterisation of black soldier fly larva chitin: comparison of traditional chemical and subcritical fractionation” and Ricardo Isaías with the Best Oral Presentation award for the presentation “Production and characterisation of extruded snacks” during IFW 2026 – Insects to Feed the World – Torino 9-12 June 2026. Congratulations to both!

Open for Contributions

📢 Open for Contributions: ASIFF (Academic Society of Insects as Food and Feed) Newsletter #5!
We are excited to announce that we are now accepting contributions for our next newsletter!

🗓 Submission window: March 1-31, 2026

What can you share?
✅ Research highlights
✅ Recent research articles
✅ Event announcements
✅ Other relevant insights about insects as food and feed
Have an idea? Let’s discuss it!

This is your chance to showcase your work, share knowledge, and stay connected with ASIFF.

📧 Share your contributions to: info@asiff.org or send us a message on LinkedIn

Wat is de Academic Society of Insects as Food and Feed (ASIFF)?

🐛 Recently, Network for Insect Knowledge (NIK) published an article featuring ASIFF. In this piece, Teun Veldkamp, president of the ASIFF (Academic Society of Insects as Food and Feed), explains what ASIFF is, the role we play in the insect sector, and how we contribute to knowledge sharing, collaboration, and sector development.

🐝 Curious to learn more? Check out the full article (in Dutch):
https://lnkd.in/eVz45axP

ASIFF Newsletter #4 is out now!

Available to all ASIFF members on our website: https://asiff.org/resources/asiff-newsletter/

In this issue, you will find:
Event spotlight:
Karol B. Barragán-Fonseca on EntoFest 2025 – Insects in Action: From Research to Sustainable Innovation and Research Center for Terrestrial Arthropods – CINAT

Research highlights
• A recent book chapter on black soldier fly by Dr. Saleha Mahmood
• Arthur Thompson de la Chenelière explains his research on black soldier fly larvae diets

Education & outreach
• Bugs in Mugs 3 (Belgium): engaging students with insect-based foods, highlighted by Matthias Gosselin, PhD, Stéphanie Crabeck PhD and Sophie Soens
• Les insectes : c’est quoi le buzz ? – an event organized by Université Laval, shared by Marie-Hélène Deschamps

Recipe feature
• Linh Bao Nguyen’s Cricket Pet Treats, a nutritious, homemade delight for cats and dogs
🐛 Plus more news and articles from across the ASIFF (Academic Society of Insects as Food and Feed) community

With thanks to our editorial team: Maryia Mishyna and Cassandra Maya

Happy new year!

ASIFF congratulates our community on an inspiring year of collaboration and progress in insects as food and feed. We hope the holidays bring you well-deserved rest, plenty of joy, and moments of fun as we head into the New Year together.

Great news—actually, two great news items!

1. Registration for the Insects to Feed the World conference (IFW 2026) in Turin, Italy is officially open!
Make sure to secure your spot early: https://www.ifw2026.org/registration
And remember: ASIFF members get a 10% discount! BUT, you have to register with the same email as your ASIFF membership email. 

2. We also have an exciting opportunity for our working groups.
Alongside our in-person annual meeting, this conference provides the perfect opportunity to start building momentum within our working groups. We thus strongly encourage you to submit an abstract connected to our WG themes. If there’s enough participation, we may even organise a special WG session to showcase your work and spark deeper discussions. While we can’t promise this just yet, we’re ready to coordinate and make it happen if the interest is there.

News from ASIFF working group

𝑨𝑺𝑰𝑭𝑭 𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑮𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒑: 𝑰𝒏𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝑻𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒏𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒚 𝑰𝒏𝒏𝒐𝒗𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑺𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝑭𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝑺𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒎𝒔 (𝑰𝒏𝑻𝒆𝒄𝒉𝑺𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏) recently held its meeting on November 13, 2025, under the leadership of Dr. 𝐊𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐟 𝐮𝐫 𝐑𝐞𝐡𝐦𝐚𝐧 and co-leader Dr. 𝐆𝐢𝐚𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐨 𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢.

The meeting brought together a diverse group of experts, including: 𝐕𝐮𝐬𝐢 𝐌𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐬𝐚 , 𝐃𝐞𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐡 𝐀𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐝, 𝐀𝐥𝐞𝐣𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐨 𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐚 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐥, 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐰𝐚 𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐨, 𝐁𝐢𝐫𝐮𝐡 𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐰, 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐚 𝐕𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞, 𝐉𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐄𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞, 𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐚 𝐑𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐝𝐚, 𝐍𝐚𝐝𝐚 𝐃𝐡𝐚𝐨𝐮𝐢, 𝐌𝐚𝐣𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐊𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐑𝐢𝐳𝐰𝐚𝐧, 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐀𝐢𝐭𝐨-𝐁𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐢𝐞, 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐚 𝐀𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐚 𝐔𝐠𝐰𝐮, 𝐎𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐚 𝐊𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢, 𝐍𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐍𝐠𝐮𝐲𝐞𝐧, 𝐌𝐮𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐝 𝐑𝐚𝐡𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐓𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐪, 𝐀𝐮𝐠𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧 𝐋𝐮𝐧𝐚, 𝐁𝐫𝐲𝐜𝐞 𝐎𝐰𝐞𝐧, 𝐉𝐞𝐟𝐟 𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐰, 𝐃𝐚𝐢𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐨 𝐆𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐳-𝐔𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞, 𝐀𝐡𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐇𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐰𝐲.

This working group exemplifies the power of 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐚 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲 to drive innovation in insect-based sustainable food systems.