Black soldier fly meal: A highly digestible protein source for aquafeeds
A by Agronutris, France
s aquaculture production is expected to increase in the next few years, implying a significant increase in the need for alternative proteins by 2050, insect meal appears as a sustainable protein source to answer the challenges of the industry. The long-lasting growth of the aquaculture sector is putting growing pressure on protein resources for aquafeeds. A recent study by Lux Research highlighted that, by 2050, the industry will need 15 million tonnes of alternative proteins, among which insect proteins are set to play a key role. The many assets of insect meals have been increasingly highlighted in the past few years: they are rich in proteins and essential amino acids, highly digestible, have interesting amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids and show no
adverse effect on palatability (Makkar et al., 2014 ; Zamprogna et al., 2017). Furthermore, insect production falls within a circular economy process, as larvae are often fed with underused byproducts, thus reintegrating low-value materials into the feed chain. Among the various insect species reared for protein production, the black soldier fly, or BSF (Hermetia illucens) appears as a particularly promising sustainable alternative to tackle the forecasted shortage of protein for aquafeed. Agronutris, a French biotech company based near Toulouse, specialises in rearing and processing black soldier flies into proteins for animal nutrition. In the R&D centre, entomologists, engineers and agro-industry experts are developing efficient and sustainable practices to rear BSF on a large scale. Efforts are being made to optimise the diet of the larvae, directly impacting their nutritional content, in order to better match the requirements of the aquaculture sector. The R&D pilot also allows the team to gain extensive know-how on the management of the breeding conditions. Temperature, hygrometry, air flow, light, shape and organisation of the cages are some of the many parameters that are being challenged to reach the best reproduction performances of the flies. The insects reared at Agronutris are fed with locally sourced byproducts from the agro-industry allowing the company
20 | June 2020 - International Aquafeed