Spanish company Futureco Bioscience has developed a time-saving quantification method of viable spores for its bioinsecticide NOFLY.

“The method is the first certified under ISO 17025 standards using automated particle counting technology for viable spore quantification,” said the company.

“This is not just an internal validation. It’s a certified, ISO-accredited protocol for the entire biological control input industry,” said Belén López García, Director of Analytical Services. “We’re setting a new benchmark in how biopesticides like NOFLY are measured, validated, and trusted by regulators, distributors, and farmers.”

NOFLY is a biological insecticide developed by Futureco Bioscience based on the entomopathogenic fungus Cordyceps fumosorosea (formerly Paecilomyces fumosoroseus) FE9901. The product is registered and commercialized in multiple countries, offering control against pests such as whiteflies, aphids, and thrips in protected and open-field crops.

Cordyceps fumosorosea is a natural parasite that infects and kills insects, making it a potential biopesticide for agricultural pests like whiteflies and aphids. Until now, the microbiological quality control of NOFLY required manual counting of colony-forming units (CFUs) on agar plates: a process that took 2–3 days and involved significant variability and labour, says the company.

The new ISO-certified method, which was valildated over two years, uses the LUNA™ FX-7 automated particle counter and a fluorescent viability staining to detect and quantify live spores in a matter of minutes, providing consistent, reproducible results across technical-grade and formulated products, the company said in its statement.

“[The method] brings speed, precision, and traceability to a process that was traditionally slow and prone to underestimation,” explained Juan Bautista González López, Futureco’s lead scientist behind the development. “By combining fluorescence imaging with rigorous validation using certified reference materials, we’ve established a gold-standard procedure.”

This announcement from Futureco Bioscience follows the recent accreditation expansion in July 2025.