OCI Sharing: Insects —— the ultimate superfood in the future
Humans have been eating insects for thousands of years. About 2000 species of insects are eaten all over the world, especially in Asian and African countries . However, according to a survey by the European consumer organization, only 10% of people in Europe are willing to replace meat with insects. For some people, this unwillingness to eat insects makes them miss a chance to taste a surperfood.
"Insects are a really important missing piece of the food system, they are definitely a super food" said Virginia Emery, chief executive of Beta Hatch, a U.S. start-up that uses mealworms to make animal feed.
Farmed insects can help solve two of the world's biggest problems at the same time: food insecurity (a situation in which people can't sustain their dietary needs) and the climate crisis. Breeding insects only use a small part of the land, energy and water that traditional agriculture needs, which reduces the carbon footprint greatly. According to a study by researchers at the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands, crickets produce 80% less methane than cows and 8-12 times less ammonia than pigs.
Breeding insects around the world will free up a large amount of land, which is currently used to raise animals and produce livestock feed. Replacing half of the world's meat with mealworms and crickets could reduce farmland use by a third, freeing up 1.68 billion hectares, about 70 times the size of the UK, which could greatly reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, according to a study by the University of Edinburgh.
Another fact is that insects are 12 to 25 times more efficient at converting food into protein than animals. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) , crickets need six times less feed than cattle, four times less feed than sheep and two times less feed than pigs.
On January 13 this year, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) approved the dried yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor larva) as a novel food pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2015/2283, which is applied by a French insect food company called Micronutris. The applicant proposed to use the mealworm as whole, dried insect in the form of snacks, and as a food ingredient in a number of food products. At present, a large number of insect powder companies have obtained investment in Europe. It is believed that more and more insect products will be on the market in the future. A food revolution is quietly unfolding .
Reference article: A neglected protein-rich 'superfood', by Isabelle Gerretsen
OCI was founded in Beijing in 2006. It was the trailblazer for providing chemical and food compliance service in China. OCI has a rich experience in the declaration of new food related products, and grasps the latest industry regulations in time, providing the professional, efficient and fast service for consumers who want to create more economic benefits in Chinese market.
OCI 5A Service Commitment: High Efficiency, Stage Transparency, Information Security, Risk Advisement and Value-added Service
