A flying start

F4F (Food for the Future) has been developing a black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) breeding programme for more than three years and has now completed the breeding cycle and is ready to apply a business model to market its products.

"Globally, we are going to have to increase current food production by 70% in order to feed 9 billion people by 2050. Meanwhile, millions of tonnes of food are discarded globally and can be reused efficiently, reinserting it into the food chain, through insects,” said the company's chief of production, Gonzalo Urquieta.

According to the company's technical manager, Francisco Serra, there is a growing global trend towards looking at insects as food.

"There is a wide range of insects that have already been investigated for their potential in animal feed. The most studied are Diptera, among which are the larvae of the soldier fly, "said Serra.

The abundant existing literature, together with the nutritional profile of its larvae, was the main attraction of working with this species.

"Among the advantages of this species of diptera is that it is not considered a pest species, the adult fly does not have a maxillary appliance that allows it to eat and its function is only reproductive. In the meanwhile, the larvae must provide all the nutrition to the adult flies and, therefore, contain a high content of proteins and oil," explained Urquieta.

"It is a species native to Chile…we are not working with a foreign species," added Serra.

Currently, the company is able to raise this insect in a controlled manner, reproduce it and grow it on an industrial scale. "It has been the way to know the species, to do the different tests of environmental and breeding variables, which have allowed us to obtain the best results in each stage of the productive cycle (reproduction, incubation and fattening)," explained Serra. “Today the main focus is on the commercial stage, the definition of products, which is where we are putting all our effort," he said.

The time is ripe

Following the European Union's decision to allow the use of insect-derived ingredients in a variety of animal feeds, it will be possible to use processed animal proteins (PAPs) in aquaculture.

It is widely known that insects form an important part of the natural diet of many fish species and are, in general, high in protein, lipids and contain a balanced profile of fatty acids and amino acids. In addition, there is currently a global trend towards insect use in diets formulated for farm animals, alluding primarily to the recycling power of nutrients from organic waste generated by insect cultivation.

"What we do in F4F is to imitate the power of nature, occupying one of the most efficient and versatile insects in terms of raw material consumption, which is the black soldier fly. This species is able to transform high amounts of organic waste into different products, such as proteins, oils and, at the same time, organic fertilizers, which is a by-product of the same larval culture. Currently, we can recover up to 80% of the nutrients that are contained in the organic waste,” explained the company's head of production.

According to F4F representatives, in Chile there are several food markets that could incorporate insect meal. "This raw material is ideal for feeding all types of monogastric organisms: including salmonids, poultry, pigs, pets and humans. In addition, the larvae can also carry out management of industrial organic waste and also the production of fertilizers,” added Urquieta.

"The market in Chile is more than one trillion dollars," said Urquieta, adding that F4F is interested in niche markets, for example, production of salmonids in freshwater, free-range birds and exotic pets, among others.