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Lipids
The larvae of the BSF contain around 35% fat. And although the protein gap has received the most attention lately, there’s an equally important “lipid gap”.
What is this “lipid gap”?
Lipids/oils are included in aquaculture (and other livestock) diets as a concentrated source of energy. Energy is one of the most expensive nutritional components of feed formulation. The quality and quantity of lipids affect feed palatability, animal growth rate, total feed efficiency, and other important parameters.
Palm, soybean, rapeseed, sunflower, palm kernel, cottonseed, peanut, coconut, olive, and corn[5] are the primary vegetable oils. Global production of vegetable oils has increased dramatically, but further expansion is hampered by land availability, long production cycles and environmental concerns about deforestation. Supply of animal-derived oil, a side stream from the rendering industry, is limited.
If the livestock industry (meat, poultry and fish) wants to grow further, its demand for lipids will grow as well.
However, it isn’t just the feed industry that is looking for more vegetable oils. They are also important in direct human consumption (from cooking oil to prepared foods and pastry), in technical products (from detergents over soaps to cosmetics), and in the biofuel industry.
The markets for vegetable oils are tight, due to rising overall demand, to competition between different user segments, and to the slow expansion of production capacity.
Both the feed industry and the chemical industry are actively exploring new sources of lipids.
Those new sources should preferably be sustainable, without climatic variations and within specific technical requirements.
The fatty acid profile of the BSF-lipids, with its abundance of lauric acid, is similar to coconut oil or palm kernel oil. Lauric acid has well-documented anti-microbial properties and acts as a probiotic in aquaculture and poultry feed.
Circular Organics is actively involved in several R&D projects investigating the use of insect lipids as a feed ingredient and as a source of bio-surfactants.
It also has access to the know-how and expertise of the entire Insect Technology Group in this field, its parent company.
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