Insects for functional pet food
Website Vives
University of Applied Sciences
About the Company :
Name of the company : VIVES
Type of organisation : University of Applied Sciences
Field of activity : Higher education & research institute
Location : Roeselare – Belgium
What are the main commitments of your company?
Within the field of Food Processing, there is a strong focus on valorizing waste streams from the agro and food industry by transforming by-products into valuable ingredients or incorporate them into new food applications. Additionally, the research group is dedicated to the development of innovative food products, incorporating alternative ingredients, sustainable processing techniques and improving nutritional profiles. Another key area of focus is advancing food quality control, with the integration of cutting-edge technologies such as sensor-based monitoring, AI-driven analysis, and non-destructive testing methods to ensure safety, consistency, and superior product quality.
Minimum education requirements :Preferred master, optionally bachelor (3th year)
Required languages spoken :
English or Dutch
Position summary :
Short Description of the company / lighthouse farm :
VIVES University of Applied Sciences, founded in 1995, is a leading Belgian institution offering practical, career-oriented programs across various disciplines. With strong industry ties, hands-on learning, and modern campuses, VIVES emphasizes real-world experience, internationalization, and research. It provides personalized support to ensure student success, and its graduates are well-prepared for their careers. .
Any accomodation offered :
To be discussed during a meeting
Internship description (the tasks, responsibilities, benefits) :
Mainly working with insects for food and feed. Your job will be the rearing of the insects (feeding, harvesting, …) and performing growth experiments of the insects (different strains to assess the heritability of certain traits) on different diets (containing antioxidants,…). Besides that, it is also possible that you are going to process the insects in the kitchen into a pasta (blanching and grinding) or a dry meal. Maybe also prepare some recipes (burgers, cakes,..) but that is not priority. For sure you will participate in our PetSect project where we investigate the value of insects for cat and dog food. For this project you will dry the insects in different ways (freeze dry, hot air at different temperatures and microwave) and assess the effects on the quality. You will perform chemical analyses of all macro nutrients (protein, fat, ash and fiber) and also vitamin and amino acid analyses with HPLC. We also developed a method to determine the insect fiber (chitin) with HPLC. In addition antioxidants will be investigated (TPC, FRAP, DPPH, …)
Job Details :
Duration of the internship :
3-6 months
Period :
Academic year 2025-2026 (ideally starting in September/October 2025)
Application deadline :
25th of April
Salary :
Not mentioned
Weekly Workin hours :
38 hours
To which pillar of the project can the internship be associated ?
Resilient & sustainable food systems