If you really want to get the most meal worms from breeding separating is going to do that. I used to raise them and have done so off and on for about 10 years. I separated the pupa, (shrimp alien things) from the larva, (the worms) and the beetles all in separate containers. I kept all of them in plastic shoes boxes. By putting plastic canvas down I was able to prevent the beetles from eating the eggs.

The cannibalism is more from a lack of moisture than hunger. If I kept plenty of veggies in a bin I could get okay results without separating them but still nothing compared to really trying and separating them all.

It only took about 6 months to get my 100 starter colony to about 80,000 or so. They almost filled a 1 pound coffee can when I separated them.

If you ever get really adventurous try King Mealworms, a lot more work to get them to pupate and won't breed as fast but can still raise a ton of them in a short time. And the little shrimp alien pupa are so cool at 4x the size.