I N C O R P O R AT I N G F i S H Far M ing t E c H no L og Y

January | February 2014 Closing the food waste loop: a new angle for insect-based feeds

International Aquafeed is published six times a year by Perendale Publishers Ltd of the United Kingdom. All data is published in good faith, based on information received, and while every care is taken to prevent inaccuracies, the publishers accept no liability for any errors or omissions or for the consequences of action taken on the basis of information published. Copyright 2014 Perendale Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior permission of the copyright owner. Printed by Perendale Publishers Ltd. ISSN: 1464-0058

The International magazine for the aquaculture feed industry

FEATURE

Closing the food waste loop: a new angle for insect-based feeds
by Brad Marchant, CEO, Enterra Feed Corporation, Vancouver, Canada ith increasing global demand for affordable, high-quality, protein-rich food like fish, it is no wonder that aquaculture is one of the fastest growing sectors of the food industry. As the industry continues to grow, the search for stable supplies of feed ingredients continues. Current commercial sources of protein can be costly, resource-intensive and of variable quality. Supplies of fishmeal and fish oil put pressure on wild fish stocks. Corn, soybeans, palm kernel oil and coconut oil create feed ingredients at the expense of valuable agricultural land and fresh water. Over the past 10 years, prices for these commodities have reached record highs both in terms of their price and volatility, forcing feed manufacturers and farmers to actively search for ways to substitute products as a means to smooth out and lower their input costs. While on a rafting trip in the Canadian Yukon, world-renowned environmental advocate and broadcaster, Dr David Suzuki, and Enterra CEO Brad Marchant began discussing aquacultures ongoing feed challenge. When Brad queried Dr. Suzuki on what else could be fed to fish, it turned out the answer was on the end of their fishing rods: insects. Back in Vancouver, the two conceived the idea for a process that would provide a viable alternative for feed ingredients and help address the challenge of a diminishing global nutrient supply. And they did it by harnessing the lifecycle of a beneficial, non-invasive insect. Andrew Vickerson, the chief technology officer, joined the team and together they have commercialised a unique natural process that

could change global aquaculture by providing sustainable, local and consistent quality feed ingredients derived from food waste.

The Enterra process

Enterras proprietary technology consists of a hatchery and a food waste bioconversion unit. This clean, contained, artificial environment optimises the black soldier flys life cycle to produce valuable animal and plant feed ingredients from a food waste diet consisting of mainly fruits and vegetables. The flys lifecycle is well understood by entomologists, and the speed by which the natural cycle takes place can vary by months depending on the quality of the food source and local environment. For this reason, Enterra developed a 100 percent controlled environment to ensure high predictability for the production of eggs and larvae destined for the bioconversion units. The hatchery uses controlled, artificial lighting and mating conditions to produce black soldier fly eggs in captivity, 365 days a year, anywhere in the world. In the bioconversion units, larvae from the hatchery eat pre-consumer food waste. The stage takes about three or four hours, and feedstuffs are sourced from local grocery stores and food processing facilities. Since 2009, Enterras scientists have tested different types and quantities of food waste to create the optimal diet, to maximise the larvae growth rates and nutritional content while ensuring a safe and predictable output quality. Enterra has tested a wide range of food waste sources and has found that an optimum diet of mixed food waste results in faster growth rates. The preferred diet in the Enterra process is primarily (up to 80 percent) fruits and vegetables, with some breading, waste grains, dairy products and small amounts of fish waste also included in the feed mix. Enterra has found

The black soldier fly

Hermetia illucens, also known as the black soldier fly, is a common and widespread fly species. They are also natures nutrient renewal experts. The adult fly does not feed they spend their five to seven day lifespan reproducing, and are not considered a pest. More importantly, the larval stage of the black soldier fly must provide all of the nutrition for the adult fly, and therefore contains considerable valuable protein and oil content. The larvae feed on most organic waste, including fruits and vegetables which offers the opportunity to utilise the black soldier fly larvae to consume food waste. Simultaneously, they create high value protein and oils that can be used to feed fish, livestock and pets, and potentially replace wild-caught fishmeal and farmed nutrients as feed ingredients. The insects have been used successfully in home composting and small-scale food and animal waste management for decades, typically employed at farms and hobby farms for manure and farm waste conversion to larvae, which can then be fed to chickens, livestock or fish ponds at the farm. The larvae digestate, or frass, can be used as a natural fertiliser, also at the same farm location. However, attempts to industrialise the process have been hampered by reliance on wild populations of black soldier fly adults. Enterras scientists have successfully domesticated and commercialised the speciess life cycle on a variety of food waste sources, which eliminates the reliance on wild populations of black soldier fly.

28 | INTERNATIONAL AQUAFEED | January-February 2014

Aqua News
that the protein profile of the grown larvae is not dependent on feed mix, but that the fatty acid profile is more dependent on the feedstock used. The food waste can be from stale-dated and spoiled sources, as any fungal or bacterial contaminants are consumed by the larvae and do not report to any of the final products natures nutrient renewal and up-cycle system at its best. Enterra does not treat yard waste, manure products or postconsumer food waste (garbage) due to regulatory controls. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency must certify the production process and products, so the only source of feedstock is traceable pre-consumer food waste from the food processing, packaging and distribution industries. The first pilot-scale bioconversion hatchery units. In 2012, a commercial scale units, built 2010, were convertalgae of Brittany from ingredient in particularly in capable coun- of The demonstration plant ing up to 25 kg/m2 of food waste per day on tries where algae is already on the Breton water s of incompa- came online. Enterras commercial demonstration plant is modular, a continuous rable quality represent an daily menu. feed basis. The pilot bioconverbuilt in modules of five tonnes per day capacsion units were used to optimise operating Herv Demais, consultant vet- ocean of oppor tunities for ity, has proven the engineering scale-up, and conditions such as the feed rate, operating erinarian for Olmix, extended his sustainable agr iculture and confirmed production conversion rates from bed depth, evaporation rate, harvesting methspeech to explain that while live- feeding nine billion humans food waste into protein, oils and a natural ods, and to develop the engineering scalestock production is growing rapidly, in 2050, he added. fertiliser at commercial scale. up criteria for commercial scale operations. The seminar was concluded aquaculture production has other Concurrently, pilot hatchery units were tested with matre cuisinier Didier issues to confront, especially to optimise the black soldier fly reproduction Towards viability? Hanoi commercial restauthe growing need for a replace- Cor lou of the cyclefor and determine operating Enterra is now in the construction phase r ant lato Ver ticale presenting ment fishmeal. Again, algae can criteria ensurepart a genetically diverse adult production facility s o populam e o f h iof s an s eexpanded awe e d dcommercial ish provide of the answer, he says, tion on a sustainable basis, as well as proin Langley, British Columbia. The new facilbecause some of them are rich in c r e a t i o n s fo r d e l e g a t e s t o vide engineering criteria for commercial scale ity, scheduled to open in 2014, will initially tr y. proteins.

FEATURE

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process 100 tonnes of food waste per day, or 36,000 tonnes per year. For each 100 tonnes of food waste, which contains 80 percent water subsequently evaporated in the bioconversion units, the Enterra process yields approximately seven tonnes of meal and oil and seven tonnes of natural fertilizer. Mature larvae are harvested, washed and cooked to create nutritious, sustainable protein and oil products: Enterra Meal, which contains 60 to 65 percent protein and 15 percent oil; Enterra Feed Oil , which is over 99 percent oil and contains 20 percent Omega unsaturated fatty acids; and whole dried

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January-February 2014 | INTERNATIONAL AQUAFEED | 29

FEATURE larvae called Grubbinz. Enterra has explored a number of ways to separate the protein and fatty acids from the whole black soldier fly larvae (or Grubbinz) and selected a common food processing method. The objective was to minimise operating costs while maximising quality, scalability and handling of the protein and feed oil products. Separating the larvae into separate meal and oil products provides feed manufacturers with greater inclusion flexibility and a longer shelf life. During three years of product development work, Enterra, together with independent laboratories, tested black soldier fly meal and oil samples generated by the prototype bioconversion units and mapped their nutritional profiles. Data gathered to date indicate that the Enterra Meal product compares well with fishmeal and rendered poultry meal. The Enterra Feed Oil product compares well with the most valuable fatty acid products: fish oil and soybean oil, and is a valuable substitute for palm kernel oil and for coconut oil. The natural fertiliser contains approximately 10 percent N-P-K and is an excellent organic substitute for chemical and animal based fertilisers and soil amendment products. Initial digestibility testing of a pelletised aquaculture feed using Enterras meal product, conducted independently by the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) as a salmon feed ingredient, yielded promising results. Using a closed-contained test facility operated by DFO, using standard feed pelletising methods, multiple inclusion rates and faecal matter tracer methods to determine protein digestibility relative to a known standard, the initial test results showed that the digestibility was comparable to other sources of animal protein, at 78 percent. More recent digestibility testing, also conducted by DFO, has shown that the Enterra Meal product is 82 percent digestible by Atlantic salmon. By continued optimisation of the protein and oil separation process, the protein digestibility could be increased to 8590 percent a digestibility level found only in fishmeal. Further independent digestibility testing is in progress for salmon and trout. system as the frass, or larvae digestate, produced by the larvae during the food conversion process is turned into a concentrated natural soil conditioner. This natural fertiliser has a higher N-P-K content (around 10 percent) than other soil amendment products, such as compost and vermiculture soil. The fertiliser product has been tested extensively with organic farm producers, and field-testing, including greenhouse applications, continues throughout British Columbia. Nutritional data, recent field tests and the companys own germination and growth tests to date indicate that Enterras natural fertiliser product is an excellent addition to the natural soil amendment market and has unique pest control attributes. No liquid waste or special gas emissions are produced from Enterras process.

A zero waste system

Globally, more than 1.5 billion tonnes of food over 30 percent of total production is lost or wasted every year during agricultural production, post-harvest handling, processing, packaging, distribution and consumption. While communities around the world use a variety of residential and industrial programs to divert this food waste from landfills, many of these methods are sub-optimal for the recovery and monetisation of the substantial levels of food nutrients that remain in the food waste. Landfills, waste-to-energy facilities and composting operations remove food nutrients from the food cycle, whereas the Enterra system converts food waste directly back to food. The Enterra process maximises the nutritional recovery from pre-consumer food waste, providing sustainable feed ingredients at a stable price, while reducing food waste disposal costs for businesses and municipalities. Enterras technology can process large quantities of food waste in hours, compared with composting, which can take up to 180 days. Independent engineering verification indicates that the Enterra process is more efficient than anaerobic digestion for valuable nutrient recovery, with the potential for triple the revenue from the same waste inputs at approximately one-tenth the capital cost. The Green Economy is front and centre in Vancouver, and the city has set the ambitious goal of being the greenest city in the world by 2020. With a ban on food waste into Metro Vancouver landfills coming into effect in 2015, regional food retailers, distributors and producers are welcoming the opportunity to support Enterras renewable food system. The City of Vancouver and Metro Vancouver have indicated support for a new food wastespecific processing facility in the region. Both are looking for ways to reduce the fees paid to dump organic waste. The Enterra process is a truly zero waste

Closing the food waste loop

As our global population continues to grow, putting increasing strain on available nutrients, fresh water and arable land, the ability to recover and reuse nutrients from food waste quickly and cheaply will become a critical part of food production processes. Enterras process recovers nutrients that would otherwise end up in landfill or compost facilities, and converts this food waste into a viable alternative feed ingredient for fish, livestock and pets. Soybean and wildcaught fish ingredients can be costly, resourceintensive, unsustainable and of variable quality. Using sustainable inputs, Enterra creates a high-quality domestic product with the added benefit of stable, long term pricing. While addressing the increasing demand for food, Enterra also decreases demand for landfills, composting and long-haul waste trucking. By diverting food waste from the landfill and from composting facilities, costs associated with waste disposal are lowered, and a zero waste product is produced. Enterra closes the loop on food waste to create renewable food for animals and plants.

30 | INTERNATIONAL AQUAFEED | January-February 2014

FEATURE

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Successful moisture control in aquatic feeds Current challenges and opportunities in amino acid nutrition of salmonids Whisky by-products:
a sustainable protein source for aquaculture

Closing the food waste loop:

a new angle for insect-based feeds

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