Safety assessment: from fruit and vegetable waste to earthworm as feed sources

P154 Safety assessment: from fruit and vegetable waste to earthworm as feed sources Doriana E. A. Tedesco1, Marta Castrica2, Claudia M. Balzaretti2, Sara Panseri2 1Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP), University of Milano, Italy 2Department of Health, Animal Science and Food Safety (VESPA), University of Milano, Italy Contact: doriana.tedesco@unimi.it The protein supply of farm animals is a central topic in Europe due to the reliance on imported protein, particularly soy products. On the other hand, livestock producers are in demand of sustainable, healthy and safe protein feed. Thus, it is necessary to develop sustainably feed innovations with a high level of safety. At the same time, food waste has already been recognised as an important global issue. From the environmental point of view, food waste has led to unnecessary exploitation of natural resources. Reduction of food waste is a key driver towards sustainable productive solutions and among the possibilities to achieve this goal, in this study is explored the recycling of fruit and vegetable waste (FVW) as a growth substrate for producing fresh earthworms then processed into a dried meal. The dried meal is assumed adoptable for feed alternative purposes. These topics are included in the philosophy of the circular economy. The safety and security assessment of the derived earthworm meal as future-generation feedstock is the aim of this study. In order to consider safety aspects of earthworms grown on FVW as future-generation feedstock, this study evaluated the microbiological quality and chemical contaminants of FVW (i) used as growth substrate; fresh earthworms (ii) and earthworms’ meal (iii) resulting from drying processes. The sampling and the analysis methods were carried out taking into account the Regulation (EC) No 152/2009 which laid down the methods of sampling and analysis for the official control of feed. The undesirable substances studied were: nitrites, the presence and the level of contamination of mycotoxins, pesticides, heavy metal and microbiological parameters. Microbiological analyses revealed the absence of Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes in FVW, in fresh earthworms and in earthworms’ meal. Microbial contamination was below the limit considered for animal feed. Analysis of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and pesticides were also conducted showing the conformity of earthworms according to feed safety criteria used for food-producing animals. From this result, earthworms’ meal can represent a safe future-generation feedstock with improved sustainability in order to reduce the dependence on imported soybean as protein source. Acknowledgements This work was supported by Fondazione CARIPLO Integrated research on industrial biotechnologies 2015 (project 2015-0501): Principal Investigator Tedesco D.