FEATURE
Insect-based meal
B
success for Barramundi and White leg shrimp by Anne Deguerry, Entofood, Malaysia
y 2050, the worldwide population will rise from 7.2 billion of today, to 9.6 billion people. There will be at least 30 percent more mouths to feed. The question is, how will we feed them? The answer is, new sources of protein are needed. Insects for animal nutrition, especially Hermetia illucens species, known as ‘Black Soldier Fly’ have been studied since the 70s. But optimal economic conditions to use insect meal as an alternative protein have just arisen. The macroeconomic data shows an increase of animal protein production and consumption: World Bank forecasted aquaculture production to double by 2050. At the same time, an opposite trend shows a decrease of the global marine fish stocks, which underpinned a steady growth in commodity prices, especially fishmeal. To keep up with the rising demand, new sources of alternative and sustainable proteins are needed. The global aquafeed market is the fastest-growing segment
of the agriculture and animal feed industry. There are multiple factors, but wealthier economies imply significant dietary changes with nutrition transition showing a higher consumption in animal-source food. On the other hand, some countries show a very high foreign trade dependence on commodities such as soybean or fishmeal. Insect biotechnology provides a very interesting model of circular economy and allows local or regional protein production, closer to the users, enabling a proximity approach.
How does it work?
Insects are farmed in a controlled environment using traceable raw materials, which are not in competition with livestock/ human nutrition. Adult flies are meant to mate, to spawn and to die. The larvae do the bioconversion, fed with co-products from the agro-industry. Within 10 days, the hatched eggs will turn into adult larvae that can be harvested and processed into insect-based products. Once the larvae have digested all the bio waste, the leftover is an organic fertiliser for plant nutrition. Everything is valorised in the process, along with low land and water footprints. The company Entofood was set up in Malaysia in 2012 to farm the Black Soldier Fly species; a tropical insect, in a tropical country. Whole and defatted meals produced by Entofood have been included in test diets for various species, such as chicken (broilers and layer hens), fish (barramundi, salmon, tilapia, grouper) and shrimp (white leg shrimp, Penaeus vannamei and the blue shrimp, Penaeus stylirostris).
Recent tests conducted on aquatic species: White leg shrimps - White leg shrimps (P. vannamei) farmed in semi-intensive conditions (12 individuals/m2) were successfully fed diets containing up to five percent whole Black Soldier Fly 16 | December 2017 - International Aquafeed