TECHNOLOGY Alternative Proteins Magazine April 2025 59 “One of the major hurdles to scaling production has long been the manual, time-consuming process of feeding, observing, and ultimately the harvesting of the black soldier fly larvae. Data-driven automation offers a compelling solution to tackle this bottleneck. It takes over and streamlines this laborious process, ensuring consistent rearing conditions, reducing downtime, and accelerating the turnaround time for the larvae by up to three times.” Black soldier flies (BSF) are revolutionising the conversion of organic waste into sustainable animal feed and fertiliser, but automation is truly amplifying its impact. The potential of black soldier flies to transform organic waste into nutrient-rich feed and fertiliser is widely recognised. Yet, the often-overlooked reality is the sheer labour intensity of traditional BSF rearing — a challenge automation is poised to solve. One of the major hurdles to scaling production has long been the manual, time-consuming process of feeding, observing, and ultimately the harvesting of the BSF larvae. Data-driven automation offers a compelling solution to tackle this bottleneck. It takes over and streamlines this laborious process, ensuring consistent rearing conditions, reducing downtime, and accelerating the turnaround time for the larvae by up to three times. The effectiveness of automation, however, hinges on the quality and accuracy of the data it relies on. Having synergy between data-driven precision and automation is what unlocks scaling efficiency. LEVERAGING DATA At Ento, the data-driven approach we’ve adopted since our inception guides our operations from the initial stages, even before the larvae are fed. The optimal composition of their feed — organic byproducts sourced from a variety of food producers — is critical. Prior to feeding, organic material is rigorously inspected in our on-site lab and sorted in our waste processing facility before undergoing a specialised formulation and biological fermentation process to maximise the nutrient intake for the BSF larvae. Fundamental to maintaining quality and consistency in this process is our continuously expanding dataset, including metrics like temperature, moisture, humidity, and the nutritional analyses of organic waste products, which are collected and analysed over time. HOW DATA-DRIVEN AUTOMATION IS POWERING FEED AND FERTILISER PRODUCTION Nathaniel Phua CEO Ento Industries
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