Insect rearing: agri-food, welfare and feed sustainability - BEFWelSust
type: CreativeWork
description: The future growth of the global population underlines an urgent need to enhance the agri-food sector. Food production faces significant challenges, in particular food waste and management, which hold negative impacts on social, economic, and environmental dimensions. To address these issues, innovative methods for reusing and valorising biomasses are required. The feed industry represents another concern, due to its dependence on soybean meal, which is characterised by a high environmental footprint and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, and biodiversity loss. In this context, insects offer a remarkable solution within a circular and innovative framework, as certain species can grow on organic material, thereby reducing waste and producing proteins and fats suitable for animal feed. Black soldier fly (BSF, Hermetia illucens L.) is gaining increasing attention due to its potential to bridge the gap between food and feed sectors. The BSF rearing industry is expanding rapidly, which requires further knowledge of the key factors that characterise insect rearing, such as diet and welfare. The aim of the thesis project is to introduce and develop a sustainable insect-to-feed chain based on circular economy principles. The thesis adopts a multidisciplinary approach, integrating the food, feed, and insect sectors. It explores innovative methods to valorise agricultural by-products through insect farming, with a particular focus on improving the environmental sustainability of the agri-food system. This includes evaluating the use of organic waste, such as fruits, vegetables, and agro-industrial by-products from the Italian food sector, as rearing substrates for BSF larvae. Considering this potential application, factors that influence the willingness of potential upstream symbiosis partners to adopt insect biorefinery were studied. Focusing on the features of black soldier fly’s biology, the influence of the dietary substrate on the final larval body c…
abstract: The future growth of the global population underlines an urgent need to enhance the agri-food sector. Food production faces significant challenges, in particular food waste and management, which hold negative impacts on social, economic, and environmental dimensions. To address these issues, innovative methods for reusing and valorising biomasses are required. The feed industry represents another concern, due to its dependence on soybean meal, which is characterised by a high environmental footprint and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, and biodiversity loss. In this context, insects offer a remarkable solution within a circular and innovative framework, as certain species can grow on organic material, thereby reducing waste and producing proteins and fats suitable for animal feed. Black soldier fly (BSF, Hermetia illucens L.) is gaining increasing attention due to its potential to bridge the gap between food and feed sectors. The BSF rearing industry is expanding rapidly, which requires further knowledge of the key factors that characterise insect rearing, such as diet and welfare. The aim of the thesis project is to introduce and develop a sustainable insect-to-feed chain based on circular economy principles. The thesis adopts a multidisciplinary approach, integrating the food, feed, and insect sectors. It explores innovative methods to valorise agricultural by-products through insect farming, with a particular focus on improving the environmental sustainability of the agri-food system. This includes evaluating the use of organic waste, such as fruits, vegetables, and agro-industrial by-products from the Italian food sector, as rearing substrates for BSF larvae. Considering this potential application, factors that influence the willingness of potential upstream symbiosis partners to adopt insect biorefinery were studied. Focusing on the features of black soldier fly’s biology, the influence of the dietary substrate on the final larval body c…
author: Cattaneo, Arianna
language: eng
keywords: welfare, by-products valorisation, agri-food sustainability, innovative feed, insects rearing, black soldier fly
date published: 2025-04-15
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:04:45Z
provider: Università degli Studi di Trento
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Università degli studi di Trento

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/11572/450432

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.15168/11572_450432