Food waste collected from local markets is fed to the fly larvae, which can eat double their body weight in a single day. Luke Wheat is the founder and managing director of Arvela, a company that breeds black soldier fly larvae for the wider market. The target market for the dried larvae, Wheat say, is aquaculture, but live larvae can also be fed to poultry in some Australian jurisdictions. Dried larvae, marketed as BSF protein, has been approved for use in specialty dog food, which advertises it as a “hypoallergenic novel protein”. That company said its palatability testing showed “canine satisfaction” with the insect protein was equivalent to other animal protein sources.
