Capacity of black soldier fly and house fly larvae in treating the wasted rice in Malaysia.

Rice is the major source of carbohydrate in the world and also the common composition in avoidable food waste. Due to the rich food culture in Malaysia, different pretreated rice waste is generated and the pretreat-component may affect the outcome in managing the rice waste using fly larvae. In this study, black soldier fly larvae (BSFL; Hermetia illucens) and house fly larvae (HFL; Musca domestica) are introduced to four types of rice waste: 1) steamed white rice (WR), 2) rice with curry (CR), 3) rice with coconut milk (CCR), and 4) fried rice (FR). The reduction rate of rice waste and larval survival rate, and nutrient analysis were measured by prepupal stages of both fly larvae. BSFL showed no significant difference in the reduction for four types of rice wastes (p= 0.28) and significantly higher survival rate than HFL for the CR and CCR wastes; indicating better tolerant to the feeding substrate. Although BSFL has significantly gre ater reduction rate (3.03 – 3.26 g /10 larvae/ day) than HFL, but in a fixed timeframe (20-25 days) four batches of HFL were generated and therefore having significantly more mass production than BSFL (500g of substrates generating 11.96g of BSFL but 22.62g of HFL). Rice waste management using fly larvae is effective subjected to the needs and purpose; BSFL is more adaptive to different types of rice waste and high in fat content, whereas HFL is sensitive to the waste but high in protein content.