This section will introduce the concept of entomophagy in terms of why it is of importance, and the recent relevance through the change in legislation. With the change in legislation being one of the main motivations for this thesis and its relevance, the content of the legislation is essential to summarize. Definitions of the concept and related aspects are covered and specified for the use in later stages of the paper. Recent development and current use of entomophagy is commented upon and serves as a look at the status quo of the concept.
2.1 Why entomophagy?
As the world population steadily increases towards 9.7 billion people, the parliamentary office of Science and Technology of UK estimates that an increase in global food production of 60%
between 2007 and 2050 is needed to meet the future demand of a growing population (POST, 2015). This might prove challenging as agricultural irrigation already devours 70% of total water withdrawals and close to 80% of the agricultural land in the world is used to farm animals (Molden et al., 2007; Laaninen, 2016). As economies become developed and people experience an increase in living standards, the majority of grain produced is fed to animals rather than people. Along with the development of Asian countries, the average diet is expected to shift towards a protein rich and meat focused diet with annual meat consumption doubling from 40kg per person to 80kg in 2050 (Molden, 2007). The European Parliament has acknowledged these estimates and currently searching for sustainable alternatives, such as the use of insects as food. Most members of the EU banned all kinds of food containing insects regarded as novel food in 1997 as the consumption was not widespread before the assembly of the EU food legislations. Some exceptions include complete bags of grasshoppers, crickets and mealworms sold and marketed by UK based Planet Organic.3
3 http://www.planetorganic.com/
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The Dutch supermarket chain Jumbo, announced in 2014 that they will begin to sell insect burgers and started the process of making insects-based food a natural choice for grocery-store customers (Brody, 2014).
2.2 Change in legislation
The new Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 which covers the topic of novelty food has been in effect since January 2018 and replaces the previous Regulation (EC) No 258/97 and Regulation (EC) No 1852/2001 (EC, 2018). The new regulation brings forth the following four main changes that aim to improve conditions for food businesses and their opportunity to bring new and innovative foods to the European market while they at the same time adhere to the high level of food safety for European Customers (European Commission, 2018). The following four elements summarize and condenses the originally eight points from the change in legislation and gives and impression of how the regulation on an EU level changes the market with a focus on entomophagy.
1. Novel food category expansion: The Novel Food definition includes various situations of food originating from plants, animals, minerals, (…), insects, which were not produced or used before 1997 may now be considered as part of the novel food category.
2. Generic authorizations of Novel Foods: Businesses and food establishments can offer authorized Novel Food on the European Union market, given met requirements for use, labeling and specifications.
3. A centralized authorization procedure: Facilitating the application procedure for authorization.
4. Efficiency and transparency: Setting deadlines for safety evaluation and authorization procedure will reduce the time needed on the application process.
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As the change in legislation has only been in force for a limited amount of time as of the writing of this paper, the introduction of insect-based products on a large scale has yet to appear in the European Union market. However, the appearance of businesses focusing mainly on insect-based food or existing companies introducing this as part of their product line will be discussed in section 2.5. As mentioned in the introduction, the European market contains specific characterizations that makes it the target market of entomophagy. Other than being a wealthy and financially stable marketplace, innovation is promoted and the EU with its regulatory bodies are actively searching for sustainable and alternative sources of food which can reduce dependency towards outside markets and reduce the strain on the agricultural sector.
2.3 Definition of insects and insect-based food
While insects broadly may cover over half a million species, Ramos-Elorduy (2005) has identified more than 1600 species that are edible and possible to be used as human food. This number has risen to more than 1900 in studies done in recent years (FAO, 2013). The most commonly consumed insect are beetles (31% of all total insects consumed), followed by caterpillars (18%), and then bees, wasps and ants (14%) (Jansson & Berggren, 2015). Eating insects and entomophagy as a phenomenon most frequently appear in the regions of Asia, Africa and South America, where insects can be part of a daily diet. In these regions the altering of appearance and manipulation of display is little or nonexistent to overcome acceptancy issues which are present in westernized countries. The following table gives an overview of the species in the world that are reported as edible and their common English name.
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Table 1 - List of edible insects with corresponding English name (Ramos-Elorduy, 2005)
Gahukar (2011) describes different methods of preparation and arrangement of insects as food in different areas, however, apart from cooking, frying, boiling and adding spices, they are often presented and eaten in pieces or as a whole. In contrast, the introduction of insects as food in European countries are likely to be gradual and develop over time with insect-based food as an entry-level product in terms of testing the market and proving the potential for this novelty food on a long-term basis. Furthermore, the scope of entomophagy in this thesis is limited to insect-based food where the insect content is a minority of the total product, but still significant in terms of being defined as “novelty food” according to EU-legislation standards. By examining where the edible species of insects are located, a better understanding of the concept of entomophagy can be clarified together with the current influence in people’s daily diet.
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Figure 1 - Reported number of edible insect species by country (Jongema, 2012; FAO,2013; Jansson & Berggren, 2015)
Figure 1 gives and overview of where the reported edible insects are located. Asia and the pacific, Africa and South America together with Mexico are the regions which have the highest frequency of edible insects due to suiting living conditions in terms of forestation and temperature living conditions. This also explains the suggestion of insect consumption being linked to a cultural aspect in determining whether it is considered part of a daily diet (FAO, 2013).
2.4 Insects as livestock feed
The previous sections have focused on insects being consumed by individuals in different regions of the world, however this is not complete in terms of covering the aspect of edible insects. Linked to entomophagy in human food, is the usage of insects as livestock feed. The nutrition values of insects make them able to be used as a replacement for fish meals and oil in diets for animals (van Huis, 2012). Estimates from 2010 puts the global feed production at 720 million tons and towards a 300-billion-dollar value (IFIF,2011). Makkar et. al (2014), estimates an increase of 60-70% in consumption of animal products by 2050, which would require a similar increase in livestock food.
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The increase in population combined with a stable livestock production puts pressure on feed for livestock and forces the industry to explore other possible alternatives. Both van Huis (2012) and Makker et. al (2014) advocate the use of insects as feed for livestock and fish and further specify that the most promising insect species for industrial production are black solider larvae (BSF), the common housefly, different sorts of mealworm and grasshoppers. The arguments build on the protein to body mass ratios and the insects overall nutrition values. Makkar et.al (2014) gives a good overview of results linked to replacing and substituting fishmeal as a livestock feed with various insects. As the results are summaries of other articles, they vary in terms of substitution amount and the method being tested, and a generalization in terms of the results should be made carefully. Nevertheless, Makkar et. al (2014) determines in his conclusion that meals containing insects is a valid substitution for soybean and fishmeal in the diets of livestock and fish species.
The study specifies that previous studies have been conducted on fish and poultry due to the limited amount needed, while the amount of insect food needed to feed pigs is higher, and the consumption amount has put constraints on the number of studies being conducted on them. The future availability and scaling of the feed industry would be a determining factor for its success as a complementary source of feed (van Huis, 2012; Makker et.al, 2014). Making consumers aware of the fact that insects are indirectly part of their diet by being used as feed for livestock could be a potential way of step-by-step convincing consumers that insects exists as an alternative source of food, however the measurement of this and the customers attitude of insects as feed is not part of the scope in this research.
2.5 Insect-based food startups
The market of insect-based food in Western countries have recently gained a considerable amount of attention, which can be seen in the number of companies and startups producing and selling food with insects as ingredients (Engström, 2018). According to general market theory, the high
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number of new entrants in the market suggests the profitability in the market to be initially high and decreasing over time as the market becomes saturated. Although there is not a specific measurement of the insect-based food market in the European market, some estimates suggest the total market value of edible insects to be valued at 1181,6 million USD by 2023 (Meticulous Market Research Pvt. Ltd, 2016). Whether the startups in the field of entomophagy has a future or not will depend on the consumer acceptance and is likely to be driven by the regional and worldwide focus on alternative food sources and food security.
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