A new project to help reduce food waste is calling on the black soldier fly (Hermetia Illucens) (BSF) to tackle food waste too difficult or contaminated to manage.
A collaboration between the Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), waste-management company Goterra, and researchers from the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation at the University of Queensland is the latest project in the CRC’s work to halve Australia’s food waste by 2030.
Goterra founder and CEO Olympia Yarger said most of Australia’s seven million tonnes of food waste goes to landfill because of a lack of infrastructure to access waste streams at the source.
“Our infrastructure utilises black soldier flies and can be located as close to the source as possible. This means our technology can service the kinds of food wastes that are currently considered too difficult or too contaminated to manage. This project will demonstrate the safe and effective use of BSF to manage all food waste streams, as well as defining appropriate and safe uses of the resulting insect protein products,” said Yarger.
Fight Food Waste CRC CEO Dr Steven Lapidge said receiving food waste from different sources creates complications because of potential contaminants in the food waste.
“This Fight Food Waste CRC TRANSFORM Program research project, starts with a scan to identify any aspects of regulation, policy or standards that will inform the use standards that need to be met to utilise insects, fed on food waste, in the Australian food and agricultural supply chain,” said Lapidge.
The project aims to benefit the insect protein industry by creating a foundation for the ongoing development and advancement of it.
It will:
- provide a comprehensive risk assessment of food waste handling, insect consumption, and insect protein processing to livestock feed;
- deliver a comprehensive stakeholder analysis, engagement and education to ensure that relevant members of the supply chain and regulatory institutions see value in enabling an insect protein industry; and
- a roadmap for successful integration of research with existing policy to reduce regulatory barriers.
