Black soldier fly on metal grille
Provided insects come from a reputable source, there's no reason why they shouldn't be safe for livestock to eat
By Gary Hartley

Insect feeds need legislative help for leap to the European mainstream

By 2030, one in every 40 eggs and 1 in 50 servings of chicken meat in the EU will have come from chickens fed insect protein, according to an industry body.

In a presentation at a Royal Entomological Society event, Steven Barbosa from the International Platform of Insects for Food and Feed (IPIFF) also said that 1 in every 100 servings of pork will be derived from pigs which eat insects such as black soldier fly or mealworm as part of their diet.

“In 2019, about 9 million Europeans consumed insects in indirect products. By 2030, we believe that 390 million consumers will have tried insects for the first time,” he said.

But for such ambitions to be met, he stressed, European regulations need to change.

Push for rule changes on farmed insect diets

One of IPIFF’s main priorities is working towards gaining EU authorisation for a broader range of insect rearing substrates, which Barbosa described as “vital to the upscale of production in the insect sector”.

Currently, the commercial production of insects as feed is authorised when fruit and vegetable-only substrates are used to supply nutrition to species such as black soldier fly, but acceptance of non-vegetable waste, including foods containing meat and fish, would give the sector greater flexibility and allow it to increase its contribution to the ‘circular economy’.

“We’ve been having direct discussions with the European Commission Towards this end. This obliges us to work very closely with researchers…to develop enough evidence to submit an application to the European Food Safety Authority,” he said. 

The circularity of insect production can be further improved by using insect faeces and waste substrate (frass) as fertiliser, he noted, with talks ongoing to have it listed as part of broader fertiliser regulation. IPIFF is also currently developing standards for organic insect production, as well as a guide to hygiene practices in the insect production industry, which the organisation hopes will become official EU guidelines.

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