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SENS Foods (EatSens)

Closing the cost gap to conventional protein

Industry
Alternative protein and insect farming
Headquarters
Berlin, Germany
Public information as of
January 2026

A4BEE prepared this analysis from publicly available sources. It reflects our own reading of SENS Foods (EatSens)'s published strategy and is not endorsed by, or produced in cooperation with, SENS Foods (EatSens). Company website

Strategic priorities

EatSens (SENS Foods) is moving from boutique cricket protein bars sold in German retail into high-volume supply of insect protein for the animal feed and aquaculture markets. The 2024 strategic investment by Enterra Feed, a major North American insect-feed producer, is the trigger: feed-grade supply runs into thousands of tonnes annually, where the existing artisanal model in Chiang Mai does not scale. A co-founder has stated publicly that the goal is to make cricket flour cheaper than chicken, currently EUR 15-25/kg wholesale versus roughly EUR 5-7/kg for chicken breast protein.

The operating model spans three jurisdictions. SENS Foods GmbH in Berlin runs brand, sales and EU regulatory affairs; SENS Foods CZ s.r.o. in Prague handles European logistics, warehousing and finance; Cricket Lab Ltd in Chiang Mai, Thailand, runs the world's largest cricket farm by the company's claim, with vertical racks of 'Blue Box' crates stacked up to 6 metres high for the Acheta domesticus colony. Bridging the European commercial front with the tropical biological back end is the structural problem every digital initiative must serve.

The biological stakes are high. Acheta domesticus densovirus (AdDV), a lethal pathogen that thrives in the warm, high-density conditions Cricket Lab uses to maximise yield, can wipe out roughly 90 percent of stock within days once it takes hold. Combined with the 6-metre vertical temperature gradients inside the racks and a four-week ocean voyage from Bangkok to Europe for a hygroscopic powder, the company is operating against several biological and physical constraints that digital instrumentation can address directly.

Regulatory pressure is the other load-bearing constraint. Acheta domesticus was authorised as an EU novel food in 2022/2023 under Regulation (EU) 2015/2283, with strict contaminant ceilings for heavy metals and mycotoxins. As a Thai producer supplying the EU, Cricket Lab must demonstrate that its hygiene standards are equivalent to EU standards, which is where a fully traceable batch record becomes a commercial asset rather than a compliance cost.

Challenges we see

  • Operations Manufacturing

    Detecting colony stress before visible mortality

    Acheta domesticus densovirus (AdDV) is a lethal pathogen that thrives in the warm, high-density conditions Cricket Lab uses to maximise yield. Published research describes colony losses of up to 90 percent within days once the virus takes hold, and current detection relies on visible mortality after the fact.

    Where outbreak detection rests on what farm staff see on the racks, the warning arrives late. Sensing colony behaviour and metabolic indicators earlier narrows the window between infection and response.

  • Digital Integration

    Linking farm, freight and sales planning on one timeline

    Production planning runs through Excel spreadsheets maintained by a co-founder in Prague, working from sales forecasts and biological growth cycles that cannot be updated by the farm in real time. The result is decisions made on data that is weeks old.

    When the plan is built in a spreadsheet that does not see the farm, every shipment delay or environmental event lands as a surprise. Tying the plan to the same data the farm generates shortens the distance between what is happening and what gets decided.

  • Operations Manufacturing

    Reading micro-climates inside vertical racks

    The Blue Box crates are stacked up to 6 metres high to maximise yield per square metre, and Cricket Lab's HVAC operates at room level rather than inside the racks. Crickets are ectotherms, so temperature gradients across the stack directly change metabolism, growth rate and immune function across a batch.

    Where environmental control is set once per room, the units near the top and the units near the bottom are not living the same batch. Measuring at rack level turns environmental variation from a batch inconsistency into a controllable variable.

  • Digital Operations

    Tracking shipping conditions across ocean voyages

    Cricket powder is hygroscopic and travels in containers from Bangkok to Europe over roughly four weeks, during which temperature swings can drive moisture into the powder. A positive aflatoxin test at the EU border results in destruction of the shipment and a regulatory incident.

    Where container conditions are only known at departure and arrival, the period in between is a compliance gap. Continuous in-transit readings turn the voyage into a documented chain of custody rather than an unwitnessed one.

  • Compliance Regulatory

    Producing audit-ready records for third-country production

    Acheta domesticus was authorised as an EU novel food under Regulation (EU) 2015/2283, with strict ceilings on heavy metals and mycotoxins. As a Thai producer, Cricket Lab must demonstrate that its hygiene standards are equivalent to EU standards, and paper-based records make that demonstration slow.

    Where each batch record is assembled from paper at audit time, the time spent finding the evidence is the time the regulator is watching. Records generated as part of the process give the regulator the same view the company has.

Opportunities, by urgency and business impact

Each bubble is one opportunity, numbered to match the list below. Further right means it bites sooner; higher means a bigger effect on the business. A bigger bubble means a bigger implementation effort.

Source: A4BEE analysis of public sources

  1. Instrumenting the racks for earlier outbreak and stress signals

    Outbreak detection relies on visible mortality that arrives days after infection has spread through a colony, and AdDV is described in published research as capable of taking out roughly 90 percent of stock in that window. The colony itself is the only data source being read today.

    A high-density sensor network inside the racks, reading acoustic signatures, CO2, ammonia, temperature and humidity at the level of individual boxes, lets anomaly detection flag colony stress days before mortality is visible, and gives the operations team the same data the biology is producing.

    • Effects of Temperature and Density on House Cricket Survival and Growth and on the Prevalence of Acheta domesticus Densovirus, MDPI Insects 14(7):588
    • EatSens blog: How We Decided to Build the Biggest Cricket Farm in the World

  2. Replacing the spreadsheet plan with a connected planning layer

    Production planning lives in an Excel file maintained remotely from Prague, working from data that cannot update when the farm records a mortality event, a shipping delay or a temperature spike in Chiang Mai. The result is decisions on data that is weeks old.

    A cloud-based planning layer that pulls farm inventory, in-transit shipments and sales forecasts into the same model lets production plans update as conditions change, and replaces information latency between Berlin, Prague and Chiang Mai with a shared timeline.

    • Co-founder profile, IES Alumni Interviews
    • EatSens blog: How We Decided to Build the Biggest Cricket Farm in the World

  3. Mapping and closing vertical temperature gradients in the racks

    Blue Box crates are stacked up to 6 metres high, but HVAC operates at room level. Crickets are ectotherms, so boxes at the top of a rack see different metabolism, growth and immune function than boxes at the bottom, and batch consistency suffers.

    A vertical micro-climate sensor network feeding a facility-level digital twin lets HVAC airflow be adjusted against the gradient rather than against the room, with batch-level outcomes tracked against the conditions that produced them.

    • EatSens blog: How We Decided to Build the Biggest Cricket Farm in the World
    • Researcher interview, ResearchGate profile and cited works

  4. Recording shipping conditions as a chain of custody record

    Cricket powder is hygroscopic and travels roughly four weeks in containers that experience significant temperature swings. Moisture ingress can produce aflatoxins, and a positive test at the EU border leads to shipment destruction and a regulatory incident.

    Ruggedised IoT data loggers in the container record temperature, humidity and dew point throughout the voyage and surface that record as a digital chain of custody the company and the regulator can read.

    • Novel foods authorisation guidance, UK Food Standards Agency
    • Dossier: House Crickets as Novel Food, the State of the Art in the EU, FoodTimes

  5. Building a per-batch digital record for novel food compliance

    As a Thai producer under Regulation (EU) 2015/2283, EatSens must demonstrate hygiene equivalence to EU standards and keep contamination and process records ready for each shipment. Paper-based records slow audits and customs clearance and put the burden of proof on retrieval.

    A laboratory information management system tied to the production line, with environmental and quality data appended per batch, generates the compliance dossier as a by-product of production rather than as a separate documentation project.

    • EU Novel Food legislation and other EU requirements applying to insect food producers, IPIFF
    • Regulation (EU) 2022/188, EUR-Lex

What we'd propose

  • Digital CDMO

    Rack-level IoT bio-surveillance at Cricket Lab

    We deploy a high-density wireless sensor network inside the Blue Box racks at Cricket Lab, with acoustic, CO2, ammonia, temperature and humidity sensors at the level of individual boxes, and connect the data stream to anomaly detection that surfaces colony stress before visible mortality.

    • Rack-level sensor network

      Sensors inside the stack

      Install temperature, humidity, CO2 and ammonia sensors at intervals of roughly one to two metres up each rack, connected through industrial wireless protocols so the data leaves the rack rather than living inside it.

    • Acoustic and metabolic anomaly detection

      Reading colony behaviour

      Build baseline models of chirping patterns and metabolic indicators under normal conditions, then flag deviations against those baselines so the operations team sees a signal in hours rather than a loss in days.

    • Rack-level environmental dashboard

      Conditions visible at the box

      Surface the readings as a per-rack heat map and per-batch overlay so HVAC and operations decisions are taken against the conditions the crickets are actually experiencing.

    • Outbreak risk is read days earlier from the same colony the farm already has.
    • Per-rack conditions become a controllable variable instead of a batch inconsistency.
    • Mortality data can be correlated with the environmental conditions that preceded it.

    We've done this before

    See how we do Digital CDMO
  • Enterprise AI

    Connected planning layer across Berlin, Prague and Chiang Mai

    We replace the Excel-based production plan with a cloud-based planning layer that connects biological reality at the farm, in-transit shipments and commercial demand signals, so production schedules update as conditions change rather than as a separate weekly exercise.

    • Live inventory across farm, freight and warehouse

      One source of stock

      Pull live batch status from Cricket Lab, in-transit shipment state from logistics data, and warehouse stock from the Prague entity into a single inventory view that the plan reads from rather than copies into.

    • Demand and supply matching

      Forecasts against capacity

      Layer sales forecasts, the Enterra Feed contract profile and biological cycle timing into the same model so production planning runs against capacity and cycle time rather than against an assumed steady state.

    • Cross-location dashboard

      One view for the leadership team

      Expose Thailand production, European inventory and in-transit shipments through a single dashboard the leadership team in Berlin and Prague can read, so the plan is updated against what the farm is doing today.

    • Decisions move from weekly spreadsheet cycles to the same timeline as the farm.
    • Enterra Feed demand and supply become a single conversation rather than two.
    • Information latency between Berlin, Prague and Chiang Mai stops being a structural risk.

    We've done this before

    See how we do Enterprise AI
  • Digital CDMO

    Micro-climate mapping and HVAC optimisation for vertical racks

    We instrument each rack with vertical sensor arrays and connect the data to a facility digital twin, so HVAC airflow is optimised against the temperature gradient inside the stack and batch outcomes are correlated against the conditions that produced them.

    • Vertical sensor arrays

      Reading the stack, not the room

      Install sensor arrays that capture temperature, humidity and air quality at multiple vertical positions inside each rack section, so the gradient inside the stack is measured rather than inferred.

    • HVAC optimisation against the gradient

      Closing the dead zones

      Feed the per-rack data into the facility HVAC controls so airflow adjusts against the vertical gradient rather than the room, and the dead zones at the top and bottom of each rack are narrowed.

    • Batch environment correlation

      What conditions produced what outcomes

      Correlate per-batch environmental history with growth rates, feed conversion and mortality so the standard conditions for a good batch are evidence rather than intuition.

    • Biomass yield per square metre becomes a measured outcome of the conditions that produced it.
    • Heat stress at the top of each rack is addressed by airflow rather than by accepting mortality.
    • Batch consistency improves as the standard conditions for a good batch are documented.

    We've done this before

    See how we do Digital CDMO
  • Digital CDMO

    In-transit data logging and digital chain of custody

    We deploy ruggedised IoT data loggers inside the shipping containers used on the Bangkok to Europe route and connect the readings to a digital chain of custody record, so every shipment arrives with documented temperature, humidity and dew point history.

    • Container data loggers

      Conditions recorded in transit

      Place ruggedised, cellular-connected sensors in each container tracking temperature, humidity and dew point over the four-week voyage, with thresholds set to the EFSA mycotoxin specifications for cricket powder.

    • Chain of custody record

      One document per shipment

      Assemble the readings and the shipment identity into a chain of custody record attached to the batch record, so customs and quality teams have one document to read instead of a paper trail to reconstruct.

    • Threshold-based voyage alerts

      Action before arrival

      Alert the operations team when in-transit conditions cross pre-set thresholds so routing or destination decisions can be taken before the container reaches port.

    • Every shipment arrives with documented condition history rather than an unwitnessed voyage.
    • Aflatoxin risk is flagged in transit rather than discovered at the EU border.
    • Customs clearance moves faster when the chain of custody is one document, not a paper trail.

    We've done this before

    See how we do Digital CDMO
  • Digital Lab

    LIMS and per-batch digital record for novel food compliance

    We implement a laboratory information management system tied to the production line so that environmental history, quality test results and processing steps are recorded per batch and assembled into the EFSA compliance dossier automatically.

    • Per-batch production record

      One record per batch

      Capture feeding, freezing, drying and grinding steps with timestamps and instrument identity, with environmental data from the rack network appended as the batch runs, so the production history is the record.

    • Quality result capture

      Lab results attached to the batch

      Integrate the laboratory instruments running heavy metal, mycotoxin and microbial tests so results arrive in the batch record with method version and analyst identity attached, instead of being transcribed back into the system.

    • Compliance dossier assembly

      Audit-ready by construction

      Assemble the batch record, quality results and environmental history into the compliance dossier format EU regulators expect, so the document that proves third-country equivalence is generated as a by-product of production.

    • EFSA equivalence is demonstrated with records generated as part of production, not assembled at audit time.
    • Customs and quality teams read one dossier per shipment rather than reconstruct a paper trail.
    • B2B trust with Enterra Feed and other feed customers is built on records they can verify directly.

    We've done this before

    See how we do Digital Lab

Digital maturity: today and target

Scored out of 100 across six dimensions. The target is what SENS Foods (EatSens)'s own published ambition implies — not a perfect score.

Source: A4BEE analysis of public sources
Production data architecture 25 → 70
Production planning runs through Excel files maintained remotely from Prague, with no live data link from the Chiang Mai farm. The cloud-based planning layer ahead of the company is what an industrial-scale feed supply operation will need.
Bio-surveillance and early warning 30 → 78
Detection of colony stress today is visible mortality after the fact, against a pathogen that published research describes as capable of taking out roughly 90 percent of stock within days. Acoustic, metabolic and rack-level sensing is ahead of the company.
Micro-climate control 32 → 80
HVAC operates at room level across 6-metre vertical stacks where temperature gradients directly change cricket metabolism. Rack-level environmental control is the work that brings batch consistency into reach.
Supply chain visibility 20 → 68
Container conditions across the four-week Bangkok to Europe voyage are recorded at departure and arrival, with the period in between unwitnessed. Continuous in-transit logging is the smallest change with the largest customs and quality payoff.
Quality and compliance records 38 → 80
Per-batch records are assembled from paper for each EFSA audit and customs check. Records generated as part of production turn compliance from a retrieval exercise into a property of the system.
Tri-node IT/OT integration 28 → 72
Berlin, Prague and Chiang Mai operate as separate nodes on different technology estates. A shared data plane between commercial demand and biological supply is the integration the operating model rests on.

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This is an independent analysis prepared by A4BEE from publicly available information as of January 2026. It reflects A4BEE's own interpretation and opinion, is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or verified with SENS Foods (EatSens), and may be incomplete or inaccurate. All company names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. To request a correction or removal, contact [email protected].