Insects on EU menu as alternative food
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Houseflies, crickets and silkworms can be safe, nutritious and more environment-friendly alternatives to chicken, beef or pork, research carried out for the European Commission has found.
Still, they are less likely to be found on European restaurant menus than in animal feed, carefully controlled to prevent the kind of prions, or abnormal proteins, blamed for mad cow disease.
The Commission, the EU executive, is working on revised legislation on novel foods, after a previous bid failed because of opposition to animal cloning.
It asked the European Food Safety Authority to research the safety of eating insects.
In a scientific opinion published yesterday, EFSA said the use of insects as a source of food and feed potentially had important environmental, economic and food security benefits.
Farming of insects can lead to lower emissions of greenhouse gases and ammonia than cattle or pigs and higher efficiency in converting feed to protein, the report said.
鈥淗ow and to what extent the inclusion of insects in gastronomy can impact the general consumption pattern in the population is unclear but (it) holds the potential for a rapid change in future consumption patterns,鈥 EFSA鈥檚 report said.
Belgian supermarket operator Delhaize in 2014 introduced tapenades based on mealworms in its Belgian supermarkets, but they were not a hit.
鈥淲e opted not to have any visible insects in the products to lower the initial reluctance but even then we saw that the customer wasn鈥檛 ready for it,鈥 a spokesman said.
Insect species said to have the greatest potential for human food or animal feed in the EU include houseflies, mealworms, crickets and silkworms.
Especially in paste or other processed forms, they are considered as alternatives to mainstream animal sources of food such as chicken, pork, beef and fish as well as useful for animal feed.
In the event whole insects are distributed as food, they would be expected to undergo some processing, such as chilling and drying, and would be labelled with instructions for use. In some cases, parts of the insect, such as cricket wings and legs, should be removed 鈥渢o improve the eating experience and reduce choking risks鈥, EFSA said, drawing a comparison with peeling prawns.
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