Insects are a sustainable alternative to current feed ingredients in aquaculture and in poultry and pig production, as well as in dog and cat feed. Insects can be produced on side streams from all stages of the food production chain, and are a promising step towards a future circular economy where side-streams are recycled and waste is minimized while avoiding environmentally unsustainable ingredients such as industrial fish and imported soy.

Short project description

We work on the two insect species that are produced at large scale in Denmark, namely black soldier flies and mealworms. Especially black soldier flies are recognized to have a large potential as a sustainable feed ingredient in animal diets, and our projects are typically in collaboration with Enorm Biofactory A/S to help them improve their production.

We currently focus on developing methods to measure digestibility in black soldier fly larvae, so digestibilities of protein and other nutrients from different ingredient sources can be compared. We also work on optimizing production conditions such as temperature and substrate humidity to maximize larval growth performance, and on exploiting automated measurements of e.g. metabolism to survey conditions and performance in the production facility. We encourage interested students to contact us to discuss and develop a project that matches their interests.