Insects as food - a new trend in nutrition?
Anna Jones
14/02/23
Reading time: 8 minutes
Turmoil on everyone's lips: Insects such as mealworms and grasshoppers have recently been allowed as ingredients in many foods such as muesli, bread, flour and snack bars in the EU and are therefore also ending up in our supermarkets.
Some react to this with disgust, some with curiosity. Eating insects is a relatively new topic, at least in Europe: In fact, insects are already part of the daily menu of around 2 billion people worldwide.
GREENFORCE is a 100% plant-based company and will remain so forever. Insects are also animals and therefore do not belong on our list of ingredients.
In this blog article we would like to take a closer look at the increasing interest in insects as food: What are the advantages and disadvantages of insects compared to other protein sources? Do insects offer a good solution to the needs of our rapidly growing global population , or is purely plant-based food the real future?
Insects in food: Old hat
We can understand why many of us view insects in food as disgusting. But did you know that many products have had insects and their products on the list of ingredients for years ?
The well-known shine of sweet foods, such as M&M's, comes from the use of so-called shellac. This resin, often listed as E904 , is a natural secretion of the lac insect that has been in commercial use for centuries.
Nowadays you can find shellac as a coating agent in sweets such as Kinder Chocolate Bons or Milka Cocoa Lentils. This coating prevents the chocolate from melting in the packaging or in your hand. In the same way, carmine or E901 is a red colorant from the scarlet scale insect, which gives Trolli, Mentos and M&Ms sweets their beautiful color.
This use of ingredients made from insects, which has been around for years, is an interesting point, especially since so many people react with disgust and anger to the recently approved food insects. In fact, many of them have been eating other species of insects for a long time and without knowing it.
What has changed since insects were allowed?
Shellac and carmine have been available in our supermarkets for decades. Only recently have other insect species been approved. These include flour beetles, migratory locusts, house crickets and grain mold beetles , which may be sold whole, frozen, freeze-dried or ground .
There has been a lot of talk in recent years about the high protein content and relatively good ecological footprint of food insects. In comparison to conventional protein sources, i.e. cattle, pigs and chickens, this can also be confirmed: they require less space and water than cattle, pigs or chickens and cause fewer greenhouse gas emissions. According to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, mealworms produce food 10 – 100 times less greenhouse gases per kilogram of body mass as pigs.
Insects are also much more efficient in the area of feed utilization. They require much less feed to produce the same body mass. For insects, for example, this is an average of 2 kg of feed for 1 kg of insect mass , which is significantly lower compared to the 8 kg of feed for 1 kg of body mass for cattle.
How healthy is eating insects?
Are we humans designed to eat insects? According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), insects have a high content of fat, protein, vitamins, fiber and minerals. They are even said to have a high omega-3 content.
Since the consumption of insects is new in Europe, there are not yet sufficient regulations regarding the use of drugs in breeding. As with meat, animals in factory farming, including insect breeding, are often given medication to reduce possible illnesses and germ formation. This in turn has a negative impact on the environment, as these diseases require poisons that have to be produced industrially.
As far as feeding the insects is concerned, the feed hygiene regulations currently apply. According to her, for example, no food waste may be fed and only additives approved for animal feed may be used.
Are food insects our future?
Keeping food insects like grasshoppers and crickets is remarkably environmentally friendly. Hence the increasingly popular idea that insects offer the ultimate solution to rapid population growth.
Although insects require less feed than conventional farm animals to produce the same amount of body mass, they are an important part of our biodiversity . In this cycle of life, biological energy (fats, carbohydrates, water, iron, etc.) is redistributed. Insects are the real inhabitants of our earth. The more insects are missing, the more likely the tightly stretched net can tear and the circulation can begin to falter.
75 percent of global food crops depend on pollination by insects. In addition to climate change, the decline in biodiversity represents a major threat to the food security of our growing global population .
But what if our staple foods did not contain insects or other animal species? What if we ate directly from the source – the plants themselves ?
That's exactly our goal: We know that a diet rich in plant-based proteins provides everything you need for a balanced life.
The main protein of our plant-based products, pea protein , is probably one of the most sustainable alternatives: 100 g of pea protein requires 113 times less greenhouse gas emissions than the same amount of beef protein . Same taste, more lasting enjoyment.
Our conclusion on insects as food
Insects seem to be a good alternative to consuming meat (beef, chicken, etc.). However, there are currently few guidelines for breeding the animals. Excessive consumption of these animals can cause our biodiversity to fluctuate and therefore harm our environment.
That's why we continue to rely on plant-based alternatives forever. Our main protein of the products is pea protein. Even though eating insects is more sustainable than eating other animal products, plant-based diets are considered the most sustainable of all. Discover our entire range, which covers you with everything you need from breakfast to dinner.
Anna studied German and Romance languages in England and has been vegan for 8 years. She is a big fan of fresh Köttbullar and enjoys researching news and facts in the area of veganism. If you have any comments or requests, please write to her here: online@greenforce.com
