Drying Black Soldier Fly Larvae: Microwave or Oven?
Posted by Spencer Doepel on
Drying Black Soldier Fly Larvae: Microwave or Oven?
As some of you may know I recently completed the I-Coprs Program at the University of Akron. During this program I conducted 21 interviews. During this time I came across a company called Betsol. I noticed on their website that they had two different types of dried Black Solider Fly Larvae product so I decided to interview them for some more information.
I interviewed with Thomas Pui Co founder. I first asked him what was the difference between the microwave and oven dried larvae. He told me that the microwave larvae were more for pets such as turtles. The larvae are lighter and don’t break up as a easy powder in the extruders. The oven backed ones were darker but were more brittle allowing it to be less clumpy in the extruder. He also said it binds better together ingredients in the feed. He also mentioned that no matter how the larvae is dried it will still have the same nutrient content. He told me they can keep the dried larvae for 1 year.
After this interview I did a little more digging into the difference between Microwaving and Oven dried larvae and this is what I found. The first thing I came across was Dr. Tomberlins blog on evoconsys.com. He cited and recognized that the first article examining this topic was written in 2018 by
Unfortunately I am only able to access the abstract of this article but this is what I gathered from it. The samples of the microwave drying showed that the protein particles were polymerized and this made them harder to digest.
Based on Dr Tomberlins summary on his blog the researchers concluded that oven drying results in more digestible product and retains higher levels of valine and lysine. However Dr. Tomberlin does point to some other amino acids remaining higher with microwave drying rather than conventional drying. Data from this study also indicated that many amino acid levels meet and even exceed the levels required by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN. The authors of this study conclude that conventional oven drying results is a more digestible product however both methods result in product that exceeds FAO/WHO standers for amino acids levels.
Another key fact I found from mediuum.com was microwave black solider fly typically puff or float which can make them a great treat for small animals. Microwaving dried insects retain much of their nutrients last longer than live insects. In addition compared to the traditional oven drying process the microwave drying process is much more energy efficient solution.
References
Tomberlin, J. (2018). Impact of Drying Method on Black Soldier Fly Larvae Associated Nutrition. Retrieved 27 August 2020, from https://www.evoconsys.com/blog/impact-of-drying-method-on-black-soldier-fly-larvae-associated-nutrition
MAX Industrial Microwave Drying Black Soldier Fly Larva. (2020). Retrieved 27 August 2020, from https://medium.com/@MAXMicrowave/max-industrial-microwave-drying-black-soldier-fly-larva-ac39e941a601
Huang, C., W. Feng, J. Xiong, T. Wang, W. Wang, C. Wang, and F. Yang. 2018. Impact of drying method on the nutritional value of the edible insect protein from black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens L.) larvae: amino acid composition, nutritional value evaluation, in vitro digestibility, and thermal properties. Eur Food Res Technol.