Circular economy approach for mealworm industrial production for human consumption

United Nations has settled that in 2050 world population could reach 9.8 billion people so the food and protein requirements will increase, on the basis of this, the actual paper presents a proposal for a circular economy approach of the industrial production process of the edible insect Tenebrio molitor (T. molitor) as food. Edible insects are a great solution because of their source of protein, omegas and minerals they are considered as an alternative to ensure food security in a sustainable way. The process of breeding and harvesting T. molitor has been designed from the perspective of maximum use of all the resources involved, reducing waste production, minimizing greenhouse gas emissions and the use of all by-products derived from the process, with the aim to be used in agriculture, pharmacy, food and feed. Throughout the course of the T. molitor’s breeding needs to be supplied by organic food and a minimal use of water obtained by fruits and vegetables; all the waste generated by it: frass and exoskeletons (chitin), can be reuse with agricultural organic fertilizer purposes (flowering) and it is a great value supply in the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries, that is why the importance of recovering of the larva’s exoskeleton from the process. The processes of breeding and harvesting of the T. molitor from its beetle stage to the larval stage are described in the ‘know how’ to obtain an edible organic product as a powder or simply as a dehydrated product.


Introduction
Since the early years of the Industrial Revolution 1.0, the linear economy based on "produce, use and waste" has prevailed, causing a great ecological imbalance and resulting in today's climate change [1]. Nowadays, circular economy is a must for environmental sustainability due the pollution caused by the Industrial Revolution for the last 260 years. Therefore, circular economy poses "restoration" and "regeneration" [2]. Circular economy is defined as a restorative industrial system that replaces the Entomophagy is the human's ancestral consumption of insects that persists until today [4], in more economically developed countries people ingest insects as an exotic culinary alternative, while in less developed regions these are consumed as a complement of protein necessary for their nutrition [5] as some rural communities in Mexico, where people eat insects because of their contribution of vitamins, the low economy of the country also plays an important factor. Table 1 shows the relationship between circular economy and entomophagy. Lower inputs and natural resources.
Less water and greenhouse gases than conventional cattle.
Share energy and renewable and recyclable resources.
Insects feeds on human's food waste, compost and manure (only for feed) or even on vegetables, in this way they convert all waste into a biomass with high quality proteins Emissions reduction.
The breeding of insects fits excellent because in this way farmers could recover nutrients from mealworm's waste and bring them back into the food chain, and do not leave any trace of pollution by the process.
Reduction of material resource losses, and waste.
They do not need great land spaces such as pasture land for livestock herds.

Maintain
component's quality and the use of inexpensive materials.
Two strategies to promote circular economy by recycling organic food waste are proposed [8], one of them is the use of insects to consume organic waste and the final purpose of the insect production is targeted on feed.
Nevertheless, their customs and social habits [9] have an important role in insect consumption. Mexican people use wild harvested insects for most of their consumption [4], however, the natural availability of edible insects as a raw material to produce products for human consumption, is compromised because edible insects are available at a certain season, they cannot meet the demand of the food industry, becoming an expensive delicacy in some cases. In the specific case of the chapulí n (Sphenarium purpurascens Charpentier (1845)), its price has raised from $180 MXN per kilo to $500 MXN per kilo (from 2014 to 2019), with the chicatanas (Atta mexicana) and chinicuiles (Comadia redtenbacheri), the most expensive insect per kilo in the Mexican market, up to $2,000 MXN [10].

Methodology
The proposal described below (Fig 2) is constructed from the existing literature on the breeding and harvesting of T. molitor [19][20][21][22][23][24]. The industrial harvesting process of T. molitor has a set of core operations: the basic operations related to insect growth and a complementary set is related to improve food safety and how the product is formulated: wettable powder or natural [24]. The process begins with the oviposition over the substratum, later it is sifted and all the eggs are laid over another substratum, thus the larvae could hatch to grow up fast and in better conditions. The larvae then start to grow over a cereal bed and fed with vegetables high in water content over the course of several weeks (Morelos, a province of Mexico, is a producer of jicama, tomatoes and other vegetables suitable for feeding larvae). As they grow and according to its size, they are separated into a different insect hutch. During all stages (except the egg stage), T. molitor transforms vegetal biomass into organic fertilizer enriched with chitin. It is important to consider that it could take up to two years to obtain the first batch of larvae production [25], according to Constantino L. M.  Fig 2. Proposed industrial process.
The following operations (see Fig. 2) are intended to make a final formulation for the sales according to the safety recommendations issued in NOM-251- SSA1-2009 [20]. Larvae are boiled in water at 100°C for over 10 min and dried for at least 60 min at room temperature in order to expel the greatest amount of water. If the final product will be in the powder form, larvae will be squeezed, cooked and milled. Otherwise, if the product is natural dehydrated larvae, they are frozen a day before the boiling step for over 90° C for 25 minutes, the next step is to let them chill at room temperature. Finally, they are packed up using an adequate envelope in compliance with the norm NOM-051-SCFI / SSA1-2010 [26], after that, packages will be refrigerated to preserve the food safety and wait for its sale to the customer.

Conclusions
In this paper, a proposal for the process of breeding and harvesting of T. molitor larva (mealworm) at the industrial production level has been presented. Additionally, a description of the production process of different presentations for sale, namely: whole larvae, larvae powder and larvae paste. All of the above, from a circular economy perspective through taking advantage of the waste in the form of feasible byproducts for commercialization in the agricultural, pharmaceutical and cosmetic sectors of the area. Strengthening the above, it is noted that the breeding and harvesting of insects, in this case T. molitor, does not require large amounts of water, since that is provided by the vegetables that feed them, which are typical of the region and without being of poor quality, those vegetables that don't meet the standards of size and cosmetic for sale to the public. In terms of space use, adequate infrastructure design enhances the vertical operation of the process. All the aforementioned actions are summarized in a concept known as mini-cattle, which prevents endangering species that live wildly.
The designed process of breeding and harvesting insects as a source of protein for human consumption, from a circular economy approach, is the main contribution of this article. Given the advances in the legislation of Novel Foods in the European Union, will trigger in the coming years the creation of companies and value chains to incorporate insect-based protein into a greater variety of products, which will invariably rescue the entomophage's ancestral culture of some towns and will create new customs, more friendly with the environment. This paper describes the early development of a new production process in an agroindustrial complex at the Morelos state south rural region in Mexico, which includes the design of a building with automated temperature and humidity control systems, as well as machinery and / or equipment, applying the industry 4.0 concept, energy sustainability and circular economy principles, simultaneously generating new products with ingredients based on edible insects for the generation of new value-added chains.