Effect of locally generated food waste on bioconversion and nutrient parameters of black soldier fly larvae, Hermetia illucens L.

Abstract

Black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) are well known for its high digestibility to reduce any type of organic waste, including fruits, vegetables, farm waste, municipal wastes etc. Appropriate BSF farming methodology not only can generate enough income to the farmers, but reduces environmental pollution which leads to sustainable development. In developing countries, in urban as well as rural areas early perishable fruits like banana, papaya, muskmelon, watermelon and vegetables undergo wastes if not properly handled and stored. In these areas expired floor and bakery wastes are also common. For this study BSF larvae were fed on waste separately to explore the effect of locally available organic wastes as feed for the production of black soldier fly larvae. BSF larvae were fed separately on Waste Summer Fruits (WSF), Waste Papaya (WP), Waste Banana (WB), Waste Vegetables (WV), Bakery Waste (BW) and on Kitchen waste (KW). The efficiency of BSF larvae to consume these locally generated wastes and therefore reduce the waste loads of different substrates was studied. Various bioconversion parameters were evaluated, like feed consumed, Total larval yield, survival%, larval growth %, total waste reduction %, bioconversion % and feed conversion rate (FCR). BSF converts waste into biomass so the nutrient parameters like crude protein, lipid and amino acid composition were also analysed. From this study BSF larvae are proved to be a potential insect to reduce these organic wastes efficiently, but may be because of BSF larvae were fed continuously on the same type of food waste, the nutrients like protein, fats and amino acids in BSF found to be very low. This study concluded that for commercialization, it is essential to feed BSF larvae on mixed types of food waste rather than only on single type of waste.