Looking forward to a sustainable insect meal value-chain: a LCA study on yellow mealworm meal production

Among the novel and future sustainable foods, edible insects can play a relevant role in providing alternative and low-impact proteins [1, 2]. Their exploitation is of particular interest given their ability to convert agricultural and food waste into products of high nutritional and economic value [3]. With the scope of designing a sustainable and circular insect meals value chain, a preliminary Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study was carried out to explore the environmental implications of a yellow mealworm (YM) Tenebrio molitor experimental farm. This beetle is one of the main insect species reared for food and feed purposes. The main product of the mass rearing is fresh mature larvae that could be processed into raw meal or further fractionated into defatted meal and fat of equivalent economic value. Defatting is required to have a more stable and industrially processable product (e.g. by extrusion process).