ENTOMOPHAGY: INSECTS AS ALLIES OF SUSTAINABILITY

According to recent UN estimates, by 2050 the world’s population will rise from today’s 7 to 9.7 billion. It will therefore be essential to minimize waste and rationalize resources. Wealthier countries will need to adopt production processes and lifestyles compatible with the ecosystem’s capacity to absorb the effects of human activity. At the same time, developing countries will have to grow demographically and economically at rates increasingly compatible with the ecosystem. Roughly 2.5 billion more people will live on Earth and will express, among other needs, a need for food. While arable land is expected to increase by only about 5%, global food demand will grow by 50–70% over the next thirty years.

Produce more food with fewer resources

Producing more food with less land, less water, and fewer greenhouse-gas emissions poses new questions that require experimenting with innovative dietary regimes. Among all sectors, animal production is the most scrutinized: today it exploits about 60% of agricultural land and is responsible for roughly 15–20% of total GHG emissions.

As for the livestock of the future, several aspects look decisive. First, the species raised should increasingly be native to where the activity is carried out. An optimal system should also avoid reliance on a single species and instead maintain diversity. A responsible, efficient and sustainable operation should focus on species that:

• have a high water and feed conversion rate;
• have a fast life cycle;
• can live at high population densities without developing disease;
• adapt to formulated diets and mechanized farming practices.

Among animals that can be farmed, insects best meet all these requirements with the highest efficiency.

The human–insect alliance

Insects provide humanity with a myriad of vital services. They pollinate plants, enhance soil fertility by bioconverting waste, act as biocontrol agents against certain harmful pests, and more. They also supply valuable products such as honey and silk. On top of that, insects are part of the traditional diets of at least 2 billion people worldwide and therefore serve as “food raw material.” Over 1,900 insect species are already used as food, making these organisms an integral part of the cuisine of a significant share of the world’s population.

According to FAO, the most widely consumed insects globally are:

– Coleoptera (beetles) 31%;

– Lepidoptera (caterpillars) 18%;

– Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, ants) 14%;

– Orthoptera (grasshoppers, locusts, crickets) 13%;

– Heteroptera (true bugs) 10%;

– Termites, dragonflies, flies and other orders 10–15%.

Western culture and the feed-first route

In most Western countries, entomophagy (i.e., including insects in the diet) is considered disgusting and associated with primitive, reluctant eating behavior. This attitude has gradually led food companies to drop insects from their investment horizons. In Europe—Italy foremost—food culture that includes insects and their derivatives is virtually absent. Marco Gualtieri, founder and President of Seeds&Chips, the global food-innovation forum, notes: “People think a whole insect ends up on the plate; instead, we should view crickets and larvae as a raw material that, once processed, will go into animal feed and later into the kitchen as an ingredient for burgers, pasta, and so on.”

If mainstream commercialization for human food still seems distant, feed production could be the springboard to unlock this resource. Rising demand for protein meals for animal feed has spurred the production of insect meals for farming. With lower use of water, space, and resources, insect-derived meals offer protein properties similar to traditional sources. Several farming systems—poultry and aquaculture among them—are finding insect meal an invaluable ally. In addition, current industrial collection and processing activities that generate food waste not directly reusable by humans are already capable of feeding large numbers of insects for rapid growth. These data, which highlight the economic value of insect processing, point to expansion across multiple supply chains. The feed industry is taking up the challenge, transforming masses of organic food waste into protein substrates via dipteran larvae.

Eating insects: yes or no?

Beyond industrial processing, a growing number of people may find themselves facing the “specter” of entomophagy in the near future. But is eating insects a good idea? The most common answer may be “no.” Yet here are some considerations that make insects a food not to be underestimated with respect to the three fundamental dimensions of food value:

1) Health

• Insects are a nutritionally valid alternative to traditional products such as chicken, pork and beef.
• Many insects are rich in proteins, unsaturated fats, calcium, iron and zinc.
• Insects already feature in traditional regional and national diets, showing that consumption is shaped more by culture than by health/nutrition concerns.

2) Environment

• Insects farmed for food emit considerably fewer greenhouse gases and soil pollutants (notably ammonia) than any category of “livestock.”
• Insect farming does not inherently require land exploitation or land clearing to expand/optimize production—long a prerequisite (to varying degrees) for conventional farming and agriculture.
• As cold-blooded organisms, insects convert feed into protein very efficiently. The environmental benefit of farming them rests on this high feed-conversion factor. Crickets, for example, require only 2 kg of feed per 1 kg of weight gain (12× less than cattle, 4× less than sheep and pigs, and half that of chickens).
• Insects can be reared on organic side streams (including human and animal wastes), delivering a double dividend.
• Compared with mammals and birds, insects seem to present a lower zoonotic risk of transmitting infections to humans, livestock and wildlife.

3) Livelihoods

• Insect farming and processing is a low-capital, low-tech investment opportunity that can be accessible to the poorest segments of society.

EU and Italian legislation

The European Union adopted Regulation (EU) 2015/2283, applicable from January 2018, under which all products falling within the categories defined therein, with no significant history of consumption in the EU before 15 May 1997, are considered “novel foods.” Consequently, for any intended food use, prior EU authorization is required based on a safety assessment at the proposed intake levels.

In Italy, the Ministry of Health issued an information notice on the use of insects in food with specific reference to the Regulation’s applicability. The notice clarifies the following:

For food use, insects and their derivatives are all considered novel foods and, at present, no insect species (or derivative) is authorized for such use. With reference to Article 35 of Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 on “Transitional measures,” it should be noted that some Member States admitted, at national level, the marketing of certain insect species under a “tolerance” regime. The same article establishes that authorization applications must be submitted for those species, in order to define conditions that ensure safe use and free movement on the EU market. […] In Italy, marketing an insect or its derivative as food will be allowed only when a specific authorization has been granted at EU level pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2015/2283.

There is no doubt the Regulation is giving a strong push to companies—many of them Italian—that have been active in research for years. New regulatory frameworks are nevertheless needed. Given the vast amounts of insect biomass required to replace current traditional ingredients, the next step is to develop facilities to produce stable, reliable and safe products. The challenge of food sustainability is an opportunity for the Italian system, especially for businesses that have bet on innovation. Close collaboration among government, industry and research will be essential to succeed—in everyone’s interest, the planet’s first and foremost.

In conclusion, the road to commercializing insect-based foods is long but viable. Relying on technical professionals to launch the proper authorization procedures is essential in order to comply with legislation and seize this emerging market opportunity.

Davide Banfi
Food Science and Technology Graduate