Sustainable feed for insect protein production

人口的增长将显著增加对高质量食物来源的需求，特别是高质量蛋白质来源。预计到2050年，蛋白质短缺将达到6 000万至1亿吨。随着人口的增长，肉类和鱼类消费量迅速扩大，水产养殖成为英国和全球增长最快的食品生产行业。然而，动物蛋白的生产依赖于外部蛋白质来源，例如豆粕和鱼粉，其生产增长率放缓，供应减少。由于这些原因，目前和未来的蛋白质供应率不足以满足需求。这对作为豆粕净进口国的英国的粮食安全产生了影响。我们必须在国内生产合适的蛋白质来源来克服这些问题。一个有前景的解决方案是饲养昆虫Hermetia illucens（黑水虻幼虫; BSFL），因为它们表现出非常高的生长率、种群密度和繁殖率，并且适合于垂直养殖，从而促进规模化的集约和高效养殖;然而，这些昆虫的生产也依赖于合适的饲料来源。我们已经开发了一种新的工艺，将不可食用的，廉价的和丰富的农业残留物（如小麦秸秆）转化为生产BSFL的可食用原料。BSFL蛋白可以作为蛋白质的替代来源销售到现有市场，可以在水产养殖和牲畜饲料中用作豆粕和鱼粉的替代品。我们已经鉴定并表征了一种微生物菌株，该菌株特别擅长在富含木质素的生物质上生长，该生物质包括农业工业中的大部分副产品。我们已经开发了一种生物基工艺，该工艺释放了生物学上无法获得的营养潜力，以产生含有所有必需营养成分的原料，以支持BSFL的生长。未经处理的木质纤维素农业残留物不能支持BSFL的生长，并且目前的BSFL生产商利用高度异质且无法优化的食品级废物，这导致产量和质量的变化。我们的工艺产生可重复的和确定的原料，支持BSFL的可重复产量。该项目的目的是优化生物转化过程，从而提高该过程的经济可行性。该工艺的可行性是由原料转化率（FCR;输入原料与原料输出BSFL的比率）支撑的。我们计划通过一系列有针对性的分析和多变量实验来提高FCR，以提高原料的生产效率和原料的输出质量。我们还将确定最佳的幼虫饲养参数与新产生的饲料，以增加饲料转化率。我们将评估最终的BSFL产品，以确保它们符合市场和监管标准。我们预计我们的流程有三条潜在的市场途径。首先，我们预计该工艺将作为前端技术纳入当前的幼虫生产设施，通过增加规模和标准化产量使这些公司受益。第二种是生产农业残留物衍生原料作为产品，最后，我们可以选择利用该工艺，使用专有原料以目前生产商可用原料无法实现的规模生产BSFL作为最终产品。

Growth of the human population is going to significantly increase demand for high quality sources of food and, in particular, high quality sources of protein. A deficit of the order of between 60 and 100 million tonnes of protein is projected by 2050. Meat and fish consumption has rapidly expanded in line with population growth and has resulted in aquaculture becoming the fastest growing food production industry in the UK and globally. However, the production of animal protein is reliant on external sources of protein e.g. soybean meal and fishmeal, which are slowing in production growth rate and diminishing in supply. For these reasons, the current and future rate of supply of protein is not sufficient to meet demand. This has food security implications for the UK which is a net importer of soybean meal. We must domestically produce a suitable source of protein to overcome these issues. A prospective solution is the rearing of the insect Hermetia illucens (black soldier fly larvae; BSFL) as they exhibit exceptionally high growth rates, population densities and reproduction rates and are suitable for vertical farming facilitating intensive and efficient farming at scale; however, the production of these insects is also reliant on a suitable source of feed. We have developed a novel process that converts inedible, inexpensive and abundant agricultural residues (e.g. wheat straw) into an edible feedstock for the production of BSFL. BSFL protein can then be sold into the existing market as an alternative source of protein, which can be used as a substitute for soybean meal and fishmeal in aquaculture and livestock feeds. We have identified and characterised a microbial strain that is exceptionally good at growing on lignin enriched biomass which comprise the majority of the by-products in the agricultural industry. We have developed a biobased process that releases the nutritional potential that is otherwise biologically unavailable to generate a feedstock that contains all of the essential nutritional components to support the growth of BSFL. Untreated lignocellulosic agricultural residues cannot support the growth of BSFL and the current BSFL producers utilise food-grade wastes that are highly heterogeneous and cannot be optimised, which leads to variation in the output yields and quality. Our process generates a reproducible and defined feedstock that supports reproducible yields of BSFL. The aim of this project is to optimise the bioconversion process such that the economic feasibility of the process is improved. The feasibility of the process is underpinned by the feedstock conversion ratio (FCR; the ratio of input feedstock to raw output BSFL). We plan to improve the FCR through a series of targeted analyses and multivariate experiments to increase the efficiency at which the feedstock is generated and the output quality of the feedstock. We will also identify the optimal larval rearing parameters with the newly generated feedstock to increase the FCR. We will assess the final BSFL products to ensure they meet market and regulatory standards.We envisage that our process has three potential routes to market. The first is that we anticipate the process to be incorporated as a front-end technology into current larval production facilities benefitting these companies by increasing scale and standardising output. The second is to produce the agricultural residue derived feedstock as a product and lastly we have the option to exploit the process to produce BSFL as a final product using a proprietary feedstock at a scale not currently achievable with feedstocks available to current producers.