Scale Bloomington, Nutri-Fly, Caltech, German, or sugar-yeast minimal Drosophila food recipes to any vial or bottle batch. Step-by-step procedure with heat-labile additions called out separately.
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Load example drosophila food recipe calculator data to see the full workflow
Source: Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center
Extra food cooked to absorb residue and dispensing loss.
| Ingredient | Amount | When to add | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cornmeal (yellow) | 80.3 g | During cook | |
| Inactive yeast | 19.8 g | During cook | |
| Agar | 6.4 g | During cook | |
| Molasses (unsulfured) | 82.5 mL | During cook | |
| Propionic acid | 4.84 mL | After cooling to 65°C | Antifungal, heat-labile |
| Tegosept (10% in EtOH) | 16.06 mL | After cooling to 65°C | Antifungal, heat-labile |
When to use
Do not use for
The single most common food prep error is adding propionic acid and tegosept while the food is still hotter than 80 °C. The antifungals evaporate and decompose, and the resulting food molds within 5 days at 25 °C.
Pot residue, dispensing tubing, and rim spillage account for 5–15% of every batch. Default to 10% extra to avoid running out before the last vial.
Cellulose plugs trap condensation in fully cooled vials, drowning newly hatched larvae. Plug at ~40 °C, when the surface is set but the vial is still warm to the touch.
Mid-cohort recipe changes are a common confound in Drosophila lifespan and behavior studies. If you must switch, document the change date in lab notebooks and treat pre/post as separate cohorts in analysis.
Each recipe is encoded with its canonical per-liter ingredient amounts from the published source. Total prepared volume = (containers volume_per_container) (1 + loss_factor). Each ingredient is scaled linearly to the prepared liters and rounded to 0.1 g (solids) or 0.01 mL (liquids).
Last validated 2026-04-06. Calculations are designed for planning and documentation support; verify procurement decisions against manufacturer specifications or institutional SOPs.
ConductScience Drosophila Food Recipe Calculator (v0.92.0). ConductScience, Inc. 2026. Available at: https://conductscience.com/tools/drosophila-food-recipe-calculator
Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center. Bloomington Food Recipe. Indiana University. https://bdsc.indiana.edu/information/recipes/bloomfood.html
Bass TM, Grandison RC, Wong R, et al. Optimization of dietary restriction protocols in Drosophila melanogaster. Mech Ageing Dev. 2007;128(10):546-552.
Drosophila labs around the world use a small number of canonical food recipes, all variants of the cornmeal-molasses-yeast-agar template originally developed for the Caltech and Bloomington stock centers in the 1950s.
The reference recipe maintained by the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center. Cornmeal 73 g/L, inactive yeast 18 g/L, agar 5.8 g/L, molasses 75 mL/L, plus propionic acid and tegosept antifungals. This is the closest thing to a community standard, and it is what most published methods sections cite when they say "standard food."
A pre-mixed powder version of the Bloomington recipe. Easier to prepare in resource-limited or undergraduate teaching labs. Slightly different ratios but functionally equivalent.
Higher cornmeal and yeast, uses Karo corn syrup instead of molasses. Common in older neuroscience labs.
Higher yeast and includes soya flour. Used at most European stock centers and gives faster development for some lines.
Defined diet of sucrose + inactive yeast + agar. Used in dietary restriction, lifespan, and nutrition studies where the cornmeal background must be eliminated.
Fly food cooking is more art than science but the failure modes are predictable.
Adding agar to hot water clumps. Mix it into cold water, then bring to a rolling boil with constant stirring. The agar should be fully clear before adding solids.
A 5 L batch can boil over within seconds when the cornmeal hits. Use a pot 2–3× the batch volume and stir continuously during the first few minutes after adding solids.
Use a thermocouple, not "feels warm." Above 80 °C the propionic acid evaporates and the tegosept decomposes. Below 50 °C the food starts to set in the pot before you can dispense.
Hand-pouring works for small batches (<2 L) but introduces ±20% volume variance. A peristaltic or syringe pump gets you to ±5% with consistent vial fills.
Cellulose acetate plugs absorb residual moisture. Plugging a fully cooled vial traps condensation that can drown the larvae.
Connects each Drosophila stock line to a food prep schedule and vial cohort timeline so nothing falls through the cracks.
Open app EquipmentPolystyrene vials, bottles, plugs, and food dispensing supplies
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