Paper accepted: Performance and nutrient composition of black soldier fly larvae fed diets with various protein concentrations throughout the life cycle

Today, Laura Schneider’s second paper in collaboration with Dr. Stefan Cord-Landwehr from our group has been accepted for publication in the journal “Animal”. Laura’s doctoral project at the University of Applied Sciences in Bingen involves a thorough and systematic analysis on the influence of the diet on the growth and nutrient composition of black soldier fly larvae. Black soldier flies grown on an industrial scale on low-value side-streams of the food industry are promoted as a new and more sustainable source for protein and fat, e.g. for animal feed. But despite the investment of hundreds of millions of Euros and Dollars in public and private money, most large-scale insect farms are struggling to survive because of unsolved issues regarding safety and environmental issues and because the cost of the larval products is too high to compete with less sustainable sources such as soybeans or fishmeal. Optimization of the growth conditions is one way to try and improve this situation. In addition, there is a growing interest in exploiting the chitin present in the exoskeleton of the insects, to convert it into chitosan as a less disputed high added-value product which can be marketed to yield additional revenues. This is why Laura contacted Stefan who has been analysing the chitin content in her insect samples. Laura found that the larvae grew faster and thicker and contained more protein and less fat when grown on a protein-optimized diet. Also, chitin content increased by ca. 10-20% depending on the growth stage of the insects. While these results may come as no surprise, this kind of quantitative data is clearly essential for optimisation of insect farming.