Abstract
The purpose of the research was to study the nutritional content in the larvae of the black soldier fly BSF (Hermetia Illucens) during the biotransformation of organic wastes at laboratory scale in a controlled reactor, comparing growth at ambient temperatures of 27 and 29 °C, maintaining relative humidity between 65 and 80 %. Eggs were incubated until hatching, 4 mixtures of organic wastes were evaluated with carbon-nitrogen-ratio (C/N) of 14:1, 12:1, 10:1 and 8:1, composed of fresh, cooked, meat, pruning and grass wastes, with a feeding rate of 47.62 mg substrate/larva·day for 21 days, during growth moisture, pH and ashes of the substrate were measured, length, width and mass of 3% of the population were measured in the larvae. Moisture ashes, ethereal extract, organic nitrogen and crude protein of the larvae of each trial were characterized, obtaining moisture between 64-73, ashes 3.5-5.7, ethereal extract 28-35, crude protein 48-51 and organic nitrogen 7.6-8.4 % at 27 °C; moisture between 53-60, ashes 4.6-6.4, ethereal extract 34-39, crude protein 41-52 and organic nitrogen 6.6-8.3 % at 29 °C. The bioconversion rate was between 16-25 % at 27 °C and 9-20 % at 29 °C, the conversion efficiency to protein was between 7-13% at 27 °C and 3.6-9.7 % at 29 °C; the conversion efficiency to fat was between 1.7-8.4% at 27 °C and 3.4-6.9 % at 29 °C; the growth rates show that the larval development speed is an exponential model between the sixth and ninth day of measurement with C/N 14:1 and 10:1 at 27 °C and between the sixth and eighth day with C/N 12:1 and 10:1 at 29 °C. BSF larvae are a promising source of food due to the short time utilization of organic residues.
