New feed ingredients: the insect opportunity

Abstract

In the framework of sustainability and a circular economy, new ingredients for feed are desired and, to this end, initiatives for implementing such novel ingredients have been started. The initiatives include a range of different sources, of which insects are of particular interest. Within the European Union, generally, a new feed ingredient should comply with legal constraints in terms of 'yes, provided that' its safety commits to a range of legal limits for heavy metals, mycotoxins, pesticides, contaminants, pathogens etc. In the case of animal proteins, however, a second legal framework applies which is based on the principle 'no, unless'. This legislation for eradicating transmissible spongiform encephalopathy consists of prohibitions with a set of derogations applying to specific situations. Insects are currently considered animal proteins. The use of insect proteins is a good case to illustrate this difference between a positive, although restricted, modus and a negative modus for allowing animal proteins. This overview presents aspects in the areas of legislation, feed safety, environmental issues, efficiency and detection of the identity of insects. Use of insects as an extra step in the feed production chain costs extra energy and this results in a higher footprint. A measure for energy conversion should be used to facilitate the comparison between production systems based on cold-versus warm-blooded animals. Added value can be found by applying new commodities for rearing, including but not limited to category 2 animal by-products, catering and household waste including meat, and manure. Furthermore, monitoring of a correct use of insects is one possible approach for label control, traceability and prevention of fraud. The link between legislation and enforcement is strong. A principle called WISE (Witful, Indicative, Societal demands, Enforceable) is launched for governing the relationship between the above-mentioned aspects.

Food Safety Issues Related to Uses of Insects for Feeds and Foods

“…However, they could act as mechanical vectors of prions derived from at‐risk substrates of ruminant origin with potential concerns for humans or susceptible animals according to the destination of insect‐based products (EFSA, ). The current knowledge on the risk of prionic diseases posed by insects was recently reviewed by Van Raamsdonk, van der Fels‐Klerx, and De Jong (). In short, although prions cannot be expressed in insect genomes (Thackray et al., ), insects do appear to be able to act as vectors if reared on a contaminated substrate (Lupi, , ; Post, Riesner, Walldorf, & Mehlhorn, ).…”

A Chemically Safe Way to Produce Insect Biomass for Possible Application in Feed and Food Production

“…In light of the predicted increase in the world population by 2050 and the growing demand for high-quality protein sources for food and feed production, insect culture deserves special attention [1][2][3]. In fact, insects show a high protein and fat content, they can grow on organic by-products, their rearing is characterized by low environmental impact [4][5][6] as they produce low greenhouse gases and ammonia emissions [1,7,8], and they show low water and space requirements [5]. Among other insects, the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens, HI Diptera, Stratiomydae) has been proposed by the European Food Safety Authority Scientific Committee [9] as one of the species with the greatest potential as food and feed ingredient in the European Union (EU).…”

“…It has been demonstrated that larvae of mealworm (Tenebrio molitor, Coleoptera Tenebrionidae) reared on olive fruits processing by-products can accumulate Pb and Hg [24], whereas Biancarosa et al (2018) [25] evidenced that HI grown on seaweed-enriched media accumulated significant amounts of PTEs such as Cd, Pb, and Hg. However, knowledge on chemical hazards associated to insects as potential ingredients for feed and food is scarce [9], but the interest about this topic is increasing [2,3,6,12,26,27]. Most studies used artificially-contaminated growth substrates to investigate the potential accumulation of PTEs in insects [28][29][30][31], and specifically in HI [20,[32][33][34].…”

Insect and fish by-products as sustainable alternatives to conventional animal proteins in animal nutrition

“…A complete overview of the feed ban in the EU is reported in Thus far, the research carried out to evaluate the effects of dietary inclusion of insect-derived PAPs or dried larvae on in vivo performance, health status, and food product quality of fish and terrestrial monogastric species (poultry, swine) is promising. However, as for the other feed ingredients, well-defined protocols and controls of insect material productive chain must be implemented and regulated to protect animal and human safety (Ottoboni et al 2017b;van Raamsdonk et al 2017;Veys and Baeten 2018).…”