The edible insect industry is booming. And although the thought of eating bugs may be unappealing, insect protein is already being used for aquaculture, livestock feed, pet foods, and many products intended for human consumption. Insects are also being hailed as a possible solution to world hunger as increasing populations, and limited resources become a growing concern, and food industries are compelled to find viable alternatives.
The French biotech firm Ÿnsect has just announced plans to construct a global network of insect farms, significantly ramping up production. Ÿnsect will soon boast the world’s largest vertical insect farm in Amiens, France. The company says the vertical farm model allows the production of more protein using less space and fewer resources. The automated facility is the second in France and claims it will manufacture 20,000 tons of insect-based foods annually.
In December 2022, the company announced it was expanding into the U.S. and Mexico to build insect ingredient production facilities, pushing into two substantial new markets. Ÿnsect also signed a deal with the U.S. flour milling company Ardent Mills to build a factory next to one of its U.S.-Midwest sites, expanding its reach into new territory.
For the past decade, Ÿnsect has produced insects used as nutritional additives in pet foods and to feed fish and livestock. That all changed, however, when in early 2021, the European Food Safety Agency declared that mealworms—used whole or as a powder— were deemed safe for human consumption. Ever since, Ÿnsect has been selling powders for baked goods, sports nutrition products, pasta, meat, and meat alternatives—and business is thriving.
The most popular insects in the edible market intended for humans are black soldier flies, grasshoppers, mealworms, silkworms, and crickets.
Ÿnsect uses two types of mealworms which are the beetle larvae of the Molitor mealworm (also known as Tenebrio molitor) and the Buffalo mealworm (Alphitobius diaperinus).
Back in the U.S., we are already eating bugs, mostly unintentionally. According to FDA guidelines, a certain amount of insect parts are, although not desirable, allowed in the foods we eat. The Food and Drug Administration’s Defect Levels Handbook states that certain “natural and unavoidable defects” are allowed in our food and, supposedly, don’t pose threats to humans.
For example, any macaroni and cheese product may contain as many as 225 insect fragments or more per 225 grams of food. Peanut butter allows 30 or more insect fragments up to 100 grams, and wheat flour allows 75 or more insect fragments per 50 grams. Interestingly, the FDA categorizes the presence of insect parts in foods as ‘insect filth,’ and other things it allows in our foods are mold, Drosophila fly eggs, and ‘rodent filth’, which includes hairs and feces. The list is comprehensive and a sobering reminder that we are already consuming insects and many more things we might not have imagined. Simply put, it is all but impossible to keep these contaminants out of our food entirely.
The FDA has long classified insects as ‘filth’, but as we usher in a new era of edible insects, they might want to revise their classification from insects being something it tolerates in the food supply to something people might someday wish to consume.
This disconnect was observed in an article by Marie Boyd, a law professor at the University of South Carolina Law School. In her article entitled “Cricket Soup: A Critical Examination of the Regulation of Insects as Food,” she explains that although the FDA has devoted significant attention to insects as undesirable defects in human food, it has given little attention to insects as human food. She says that, culturally, insects are not commonly considered food in the United States partially because the FDA has categorized insects as ‘filth’ under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA). She concludes that by recognizing insects as food, the FDA may help to facilitate greater acceptance of insects as a food source by the general public.
Regardless of the way insects may or may not be categorized, the United States is investing in edible insects and has been for some time. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has created a U.S. government interagency working group called the IPWG, which stands for the Insects as Protein Working Group. The group’s mission is to facilitate exploration, coordination, and decision-making around the ‘burgeoning opportunity’ of insect protein in human and animal diets. The group has been investing in projects on the topic of edible insects, telling the Epoch Times that they have invested a total of $5 million between 2008-2021.
Some have expressed concern about the push for those in Europe and North America to adopt insects into our diets and the simultaneous imposition of fertilizer bans in places like Europe, Canada, and Sri Lanka.
In the Netherlands, the EU’s largest food exporter, the government is forcing farmers to sell their land to the state unless they reduce the amount of nitrogen fertilizer they use. Without fertilizer, farmers can’t produce enough food to feed themselves or to export—let alone turn a profit. In the United States, some speculate that a tax on meat may be in our not-too-distant future to help incentivize the public to choose more sustainable foods, like plant-based protein sources or, that’s right, edible insects.
Some wonder if it is a coincidence that the World Economic Forum, in a 2023 Global Risks Report, called for a ‘transition to net-zero, nature-positive food’ to fight ‘food insecurity.’ The WEF considers edible insects a zero-emission food. The report states that the WEF calls for ‘radical policy measures’ to encourage the transition to ‘zero-emissions food.’ These statements have caused concerns that imposing burdens on the cattle and dairy industry is making it difficult for them to produce what is needed for the industry to survive, which may pave the way for the insect industry to thrive and, ultimately, give less choice to consumers.
The food industry is looking into ways to mass produce insects as a food source for fish and chickens that eat them as a part of their natural diet, but what about how eating bugs might impact humans?
One question that doesn’t come up in the discussion about edible insects is the effects of eating bugs on human health. And while the benefits seem clear to a planet with an ever-increasing population and food industries that can save costs and resources, we might consider if eating insects is actually good for us and what the consequences might be—especially long term.
One concern is that there seems to be some uncertainty about whether chitin, an abundant polysaccharide found in the exoskeleton of insects, is harmful to humans, if we can digest it, and its potential effects on human health—especially inflammation and the immune response.
A review published in Clinical Reviews and Allergy Immunology in 2018 states that ‘mammalians’ cannot synthesize chitins, and they are considered a potential target for recognition by the immune system. The study authors state that chitins can activate various immune responses, primarily in the lungs and gut, and elicit allergic reactions, raising concerns about their consumption.
The lack of research on the effects of consuming insects on human health makes it challenging to know the long-term consequences, and more investigation is needed to answer this question.
Mike Adams of Natural News, a vocal critic of eating insects, recently purchased some edible insect products on Amazon and took microscopy photographs at magnifications ranging from 50X to 300X at his food science lab. Adams purchased three cricket products labeled for human consumption and one for consumption by reptiles. The photos—that look like something out of a horror film—can be seen here.
In the article showcasing the gruesome photos, Adams says, “While the meat supply chain is being destroyed by governments who claim nitrogen is evil—yes, the very same governments that still claim carbon dioxide is a pollutant even though it’s the pillar of photosynthesis—we’re all being told to eat crickets and mealworms to save the planet.”
The Epoch Times reached out to Mr. Adams, but he was unavailable for comment.
Meticulous Market Research projects that the edible insect market will be worth $4.63 billion by 2027. The company also predicts that the edible insect market will grow by 26.5 percent between 2020 and 2027.
Products in the edible insect market include whole insects, insect powder, insect meal, and insect oil. Types of insects included in the analysis are crickets, black soldier flies, and mealworms. Their applications include animal feed, protein bars and shakes, bakery and confectionery products, and beverages.
The bigger question might not be will we eat bugs, but will we choose to eat them? While some may see insects as an easy win for their ethics around food and the environment, others may find them a glaring imposition made by a wealthy elite who can have their steak and eat it too.
Regarding those fundamental everyday life decisions like what we eat, choice matters. The benefits of edible insects might be obvious to the food industry looking for more sustainable options, but little attention seems to be placed on the intended consumers of all these bugs—us.
Ultimately, having options when it comes to food seems wise considering the challenges we face, but allowing people the freedom to choose from the available options appears to be the most crucial issue to the people meant to consume them—because no one wants to be forced to eat bugs if they don’t want to.
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