Best Poster Award: Pursuing circularity in food systems: unravelling the environmental potential of black soldier fly larvae

Black Soldier Fly (BSF) larvae production is on the rise. Thanks to their gut-microbiota, BSF larvae can grow
on a wide range of organic streams. This makes them ideal candidates to turn organic waste streams into protein-rich biomass that can be re-used in the food system either as animal feed or human food. Nonetheless, even though BSF larvae are produced already at large-scale globally, their exact role in a circular food system is unknown. The overall research aim of this project, therefore, is to unravel the potential contribution of black soldier fly larvae to a sustainable and circular food system. For that, greenhouse gas (GHG) and ammonia emissions will be quantified when BSF larvae are reared on three different organic streams (i.e., industrial food residues, pig manure and food waste). Experiments with labelled nitrogen will be carried out to determine the fate of non-protein nitrogen (e.g., urea in pig manure) when ingested by BSF. In addition, the economic benefits and environmental consequences of using these three organic streams to grow BSF instead of using the organic streams for other activities (e.g., composting, biogas generation, etc.) will be determined. Finally, the environmental consequences of incorporating BSF as food and feed will be explored at a food systems level using a modelling approach