Insects for waste reduction

The University of Torino (UNITO) is one of the largest Italian Universities. According to the ARWU international ranking, in 2022 UNITO ranked as the 5th university in Italy and among the top 300 universities out of 1.200 worldwide. The position has been confirmed by the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR), which yearly evaluates the best universities in the world: in fact, 2022 UNITO positioned itself at the 230th place worldwide (5th among the Italian Universities). The NTU Taiwan ranking for 2022 sets UNITO at the 4th place in Italy and at the 131st place over the 500 top universities worldwide. UniTo is also 4th in Italy and 22nd over 600+ worldwide in the 2022 ranking by GreenMetrics, assessing the environmental and social sustainability of academic activities and infrastructures. As for internationalization, UNITO is involved in about 500 cooperation agreements with institutions all around the world (South America, Mediterranean countries, India and China, in addition to Europe), including joint educational programs at undergraduate and doctoral level. In addition, the University's Departments offer excellent opportunities for Italian and non-Italian academic staff. International and local funding programs, both public and private, support the University’s commitment to innovation and research.
UNITO manages roughly 500 research projects per year (115 FP7 and 176 H2020 funded research projects). In Horizon Europe, 82 projects have been financed so far (27 coordinated by UNITO and 10 funded under the Research Infrastructures programme).
UNITO is Core Partner of the EIT Food Knowledge and Innovation Community, being involved in 139 EIT Food-funded projects (2017-present), and is appointed since January 2022 as an Associated Partner of the EIT Health Knowledge and Innovation Community, involving the highest profile and mostly renown members from the European community of healthcare, biomedical research, higher education and health and biotech industry.
UNITO is extremely aware of its role in the local community and promotes knowledge transfer to industry through patent licensing and spin-offs, and engages publicly with science, respecting economic, social and environmental sustainability by developing a wide range of public engagement in research activities.

The Deartment of Agricultural, Forests and Food Sciences (DISAFA - (https://en.disafa.unito.it/do/home.pl/View?doc=/about_us/about_the_department.html) mission is to provide research and innovation, university training, public engagement in the field of primary production and food processing, and the interactions of these activities with citizens, the territory, and the environment. DISAFA studies agricultural, forestry and food systems in their biological, ecological and production aspects. It addresses technological and economic-managerial aspects, environmental footprints, and biotechnological approaches related to their evolution and improvement. The Department adopts a multidisciplinary approach by choice –not only as imposed by the complexity of production and transformation processes, but also as a strategy to add value to the scientific and technological role of individual disciplines. ed sustainable solutions to current and future challenges. DISAFA has a strong experience on animal husbandry, agriculture, and food science.

We are interested in participating in a consortium for reduction of food loss and waste; we offer our expertise in using insects (Hermetia illucens and Tenebrio molitor) to bioconvert waste into new products (live larvae, protein meal, oil, chitin, antimicrobial peptides) for feed and food purposes, as well as frass to be used in substitution of mineral fertilisers

insect bioconversion, frass, Hermetia illucens, Tenebrio molitor, sustainable raw material, novel ingredients