Safety Issues Associated with the Production of Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia Illucens) Larvae in Africa. 

Abstract

<title>Abstract</title> The emergence of climate change has rendered conventional feed sources unsustainable due in part to the rising cost of feed sources, food-feed competition and increasing ecological footprint. This is particularly the case in Africa, where most crops for feed production rely on rain-fed agriculture. Globally, agricultural production is expected to decline by 5–30% by 2050 because of climate change, and a significantly higher decline is expected in sub-Saharan Africa. As a result, insect-based feed is becoming increasingly popular as alternative protein sources, however, its safety due to microbiological, chemical and physical contaminants remains a serious potential health issue requiring urgent attention. In this review, we examined relevant literature from Africa on insect-based feed and food, focusing on the black soldier fly, <italic>Hermetia illucens</italic>, larvae (BSFL). The major focus was on the safety of BSFL through the whole value chain, from rearing substrate to processing methods and handling of the final product of feed and food. Specifically, microbiological, allergenic and chemical aspects including the potential evolution and transmission of antibiotic resistance bacteria (ARBs) and antibiotic-resistant genes (ARGs) were examined. Our findings revealed that there is inadequate research on the insect-food sector despite the wide practice of entomophagy in Africa. The results also indicated the existence of a wide variety of uncharacterised substrates from diverse sources used for rearing BSFL and that processing and handling methods practised to ensure the safety of BSFL are inadequate. The major concern was on the non-characterisation of substrates for microbiological and chemical hazards, which may facilitate the proliferation and transmission of ARBs and ARGs.