Mealworms have the ability to recycle plant waste materials of low quality into high-quality feed rich in energy, protein and fat in a relatively short time.
A life cycle assessment (LCA) from cradle to mill gate found that the production of mealworm larvae meal had higher impacts (cumulative energy demand, climate change, acidification potential, eutrophication potential, land use) by kg of protein than soybean and fish meal. Meal yield, oil yield, feed intake and electricity consumption had considerable influence on variation in those impacts. Optimization of mealworm productivity is thus required to improve the environmental performance of mealworm production (Thévenot et al., 2018).