Insects will soon be part of our diet, to alleviate future meat shortages. A new regime that poses several questions.
You are not yet entomophagous? Sooner or later you will. The consumption of insects is on the horizon for the coming decades in our Western societies. Soon we will be cooking grilled locusts and wasp larvae with as much naturalness and delicacy as a good rump steak.
“It will be a bit like sushi, there will be first in the big cities and it will appeal especially to young people, assure the authors of a book devoted to the question *, presented this Thursday at INRA. In places that are very rural or among the older generations, there will be greater reluctance ”. But in the end, no one will resist the wave of insects that will sweep our plates by 2050.
Before that, however, it will be necessary to adapt. Modify our legislation, which does not quite authorize the consumption of insects – the statute, ambiguous, is not regulated and many companies work in France in a more or less illegal way. It will also be necessary to better understand what this new diet can bring us, what are its nutritional and taste benefits, the health risks and the ecological issues.
While the FAO recommends stepping up a gear when it comes to insect consumption, there are many questions. Why actor summarizes them and provides some answers. Enjoy your lunch !
* Insects on the menu? Vincent Albouy, Jean-Michel Chardigny, Quæ editions
But why eat insects?
It’s true, why eat these bugs when we have oxen, pigs, chickens at our disposal? Because everyone thinks like you. As populations urbanize, become westernized, get richer, they want to consume meat. This is the case in China, for example, where traditional food fades in favor of game meals, reflections of social ascent.
Except that in 2050, we will be 9.5 billion people on earth. To feed all these mouths, according to the FAO, food production will have to be increased by 70%. Meat production will have to increase from 270 million tonnes in 2009 to 470 million in 2050. As for animal meal, they will also have to diversify. To complete our food budget, edible novelties will then be welcome, even if they are creepy, sticky and a priori repulsive.
Two billion people taste insects around the world, following ancestral gastronomic traditions. Africa, Asia and South America have developed the most refined recipes. “Europe and the West more generally, it is the small Gallic village which resists”, smiles Vincent Alboy, entomologist.
Insects, are they good?
Some 2000 species of insects are edible, you should definitely find what you are looking for. “We have in mind the reality TV series where the candidates have to swallow worms that wriggle, and they regurgitate immediately, but that’s not quite it”, explains Vincent Alboy.
Three main types of preparation should thus become widespread: “hidden insects” (maggots transformed into flour for pizzas, bread, pasta, etc.); “cooking insects” (a kilo of live crickets to prepare at home, like one buys fresh langoustines at the market); and finally, the “ready-to-eat” insects – it’s the skewer of grilled grasshoppers with Thai sauce ordered around the corner, or the caterpillars as a snack nibbled at an aperitif.
Miguel Prosper transforms insects
Miguel Prosper had the idea of eating insects while feeding his pair of geckos, lizards from Pakistan. “By giving them crickets and grasshoppers, I wanted to cook them”. Since then, the chef has set up his home catering business, surfing on innovative gastronomy, “techno food”, the offbeat taste experience… and insects.
“The variety of tastes is very interesting, even more so than the meat and the fish! he rejoices. All chefs should use this product. There is a lot of work to be done on the image and attractiveness of these foods, but once processed, many reluctant have changed their minds ”. It must be said that the menu appeals: foie gras from termites and ants, sea urchin cream with Congo black caterpillar, Malabar termite rice pudding… “The whole point is to arouse curiosity! “
But beyond the taste, is it healthy to eat insects? Does a dish of beetle rice contain as much protein as a slice of roast? Science has no other answers to this than in its infancy. “Only about twenty species have been analyzed for their nutritional properties,” explains Jean-Michel Chardigny, nutrition specialist at INRA. It is not homogeneous; palm kernel worms are very rich in fat, while honey ant is loaded with sugars. Rather, the larva provides protein. But this is an almost theoretical composition ”.
In reality, we do not know anything about the digestion of insects by man, the fate of amino acids in his body, the bioavailability of these foods. In fact, it will be difficult to replace a piece of red meat with a handful of caterpillars. “It is not about that; rather, insect consumption will supplement that of meat so as not to increase world production. The insect will not replace the cattle ”.
Is there a health risk in eating insects?
To be fair, bugs tend to scare us rather than tantalize us. When they do not carry diseases and viruses, they torture us at night and devour our blood … In terms of the risks associated with their ingestion, knowledge is also lacking, but the risk best identified seems to be of an allergic nature.
“As with any source of protein, this risk exists,” explains Jean-Michel Chardigny. In particular, there are questions that arise around cross-allergies with crustaceans, since insects and crustaceans are distant cousins ”. Work is underway to study the hypothesis, but regulatory brakes are limiting the research. “Once they are lifted, we will perhaps label this or that species of insect as an allergen.”
As for the risk of disease transmission, there too will need to be better assessed. Since man is very far from the insect, the probability of contracting a virus by consuming a contaminated batch seems very low, but we remain, again, in the hypothesis. For producers, this lack of perspective and knowledge can be fatal.
“I knew a small American company that had to go out of business; his cricket farm was hit by a virus, the manager failed to disinfect and had to shut down. The more concentrated the farms, the higher the risk of disease … And if you call your veterinarian to tell him about your problem, he will be very confused! “. The other health issue is linked to the presence of typical bacteria E.Coli which can develop in the event of a break in the cold chain.
Jean-Michel Chardigny, nutrition specialist at INRA: ” Regarding the feeding of animals by insects, on the other hand, a study has shown a risk of disease transmission “
Eating insects, is it legal?
This is where things go wrong. The European Union theoretically prohibits the sale of insects for consumption, but each country applies the legislation as it sees fit. Some, like Belgium or the United Kingdom, have established lists of legally edible insects. Others are on the wait, such as France, Spain and Germany.
“When companies show a white leg, guarantee product traceability, take a serious approach, the authorities are tolerant; otherwise, they initiate repressive measures ”, explains Cédric Auriol, director of the company Micronutris, the only producer of insects in France.
At 1er January 2018, the Novel Food law on novel foods will change; it will officially include insects among the food category, which will clarify a very unclear regulatory situation. But this development will not answer the many questions that arise in terms of breeding, and that cannot be avoided for very long: how to feed the insects? How to kill them? Protect them ?
“The regulations on slaughterhouses concern vertebrates,” emphasizes Vincent Alboy. As for the laws on animal welfare, which require for example a minimum surface area per animal, it does not make sense for caterpillars that live grouped together and hate being separated! “
How do you produce insects?
In Toulouse, the Micronutris company has done well by multiplying the evidence of its good practices. So much so that it has become the only company in the world to hold the ISO22000 standard for insects, a label that guarantees the quality of edible goods … Its founder, Cédric Auriol, is an entrepreneur from a business school – a profile that is often found in this emerging agricultural sector.
“We have several areas indoors – mating, laying, hatching, growing,” he explains. The advantage of insects is that they are vertical rearing, you can stack the boxes ”- at least for the insects that do not fly. For the killing, the company opted for scalding, like shellfish, for an instant effect. Another advantage of insects: “they have no pain sensors, according to the scientific community”.
Credit: Mucronutris
Credit: Mucronutris
Credit: Mucronutris
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