Breadworm Approved EU New Resource Food Is Spring arriving at Insect Protein Food?

On 1 June, the European Commission approved the introduction of mealworm larvae on the market as a new resource food and amended the Annex to the European Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/2470 dealing with the requirements for the use of new types of food.

　　Back in early 2018, French food company SAS EAP submitted an application to the European Commission for dried mealworm larva (Dried Tenebrio Molitor Larva) as a new source food. The application requires that the dried mealworm larvae be used as a complete dried insect snack and as a food ingredient in several foods, targeting the general population. After three and a half years, the raw material was approved as a new resource food in the Eu, providing more market opportunities for insect food manufacturers.

The global insect food market is growing rapidly

　　As we all know, insect growth does not require a lot of land and water resources, and it produces almost no greenhouse gases. Many insects can live through manure or through other organic wastes such as food scraps, scraps, or grains discarded in the winemaking industry.

　　Insects have a very high protein conversion rate, producing the same amount of protein, insects need only 1/12 of the feed of cattle, and only 1/1500 of the water resources required of cattle. As a result, insect-derived proteins are also high-quality alternatives to plant-based, microbial, and cellular-derived proteins.

　　In 2019, about 500 tons of insects were placed in the European market, and the Edible Insect Market in North America is also growing at a rate of 7.3% per year. Global Market Insights, a market research firm, expects the global edible insect market to grow from $33 million today to $522 million by 2033. Mexico, Japan, Germany, France, the United States, Belgium and other countries are the earliest countries in the world to develop insect food, and there are a variety of insect foods on the market, such as protein bars, biscuits, bread, sauces, beverages, etc.

　　Founded in 2014, EXO was the first 50,000 cricket protein bars issued that year, and within weeks they were snapped up online. Savoury insect biscuits from British snack startup Small Giants, high in protein, are made from 15% cricket powder, which provides protein and vitamin B12. In Japan, insects are added to Senbei food, noodle products, and even beer, and vending machines specializing in insect food have appeared on the streets, and they have gained high popularity.

China's insect food needs to be studied in depth

　　The custom of eating insects in China has a long history and is more prevalent in ethnic minority areas. China's land is vast and rich in insect resources. However, at present, China's insect food is mainly based on folk collection or small workshops, and there are fewer packaged food brands with scale, and related industries have just started. Enterprises will choose silkworm pupae with high consumer acceptance as raw materials, and the processing method is mainly ground into powder.

　　At the same time, China is also a major exporter of insect raw materials in the world, mainly exporting mealworms, silkworm pupae and wasps. Japanese people who have the habit of eating wasps in autumn will also import a large number of wasp larvae from China. China's frozen silkworm pupae is mainly exported to South Korea.

　　In the development of new food raw materials, in 2010, the former Ministry of Health approved dilong protein as a new food raw material. The earth dragon protein made by the process of washing, hydrolysis and autolysis, centrifugal separation, microfiltration, spray drying, packaging and other processes of earth dragon (earthworm) is selected as the raw material for the new food. Dilong protein is not suitable for infants, adolescents, pregnant women, allergies and other people to eat, the amount of consumption is ≤ 10 g / day. Earth dragon protein must not detect earthworm kinase (enzyme complex extracted from earthworms, applied to the pharmaceutical industry), the implementation standard is the drug administration law. At present, there are fewer ordinary foods developed in China with dilong protein, and most of them are still developed as health foods.

　　In 2014 and 2017, Yunshi moth and fly maggot protein powder also declared new food raw materials in China, but they have not been approved so far.

　　It is a larvae of the parasitic celestial bull and its close insects in the stem and root of the legume yunshi plant, which is of great damage to the cloud tree. Yunshi borer was commonly used as a medicinal material in ancient times, and its medicinal value was high, commonly known as "doumi insect". Doumi insects are rich in active proteins and esteroid compounds, and studies have shown that the protein of Cloud Moth contains antimicrobial peptide components, which improve the body's immunity while supplementing basic nutrients.

　　Another new food raw material declared is fly maggot protein powder, which is the egg produced by isolating and domesticating multi-generation houseflies, cultivated with distiller's lees as the cultivation raw material, harvesting mature housefly 3-year-old larvae, which are milky yellow, and are cleaned, dried at high temperature, crushed, packaged, and sterilized to obtain dry powder. Research on the use of fly maggots began in the 1920s. By the 1950s, many countries began to raise maggots and successfully produced them on a large scale. Nowadays, fly maggot powder has been industrially produced as a feed with high nutritional value and has been widely used. On the other hand, the viability of houseflies in harsh environments is very strong, and the study of their immune mechanisms has gradually become a very active field. The fly maggot protein as a food has been recorded since ancient times, and recently many scholars in China are also vigorously trying to develop the application of fly maggots in food. In terms of deep processing of fly maggots, there are no large companies and brand-name products in China.

　　At present, China's food research on insect protein is still in its infancy, there is less in-depth research on it, and modern research data is even more rare, which is the main reason why cloud moth and fly maggot protein powder have not passed the approval of new food raw materials. So "bugs" still have a long way to go if they want to enter the food industry.

　　Perhaps eating insects is difficult for most people to accept, but with the help of modern food technology, insects do not necessarily appear in their complete form, but are processed into protein additives and then made into food with other raw materials. Just as vegetarian meat has a long history in Asia, it was not until the use of cutting-edge food processing technology to make the taste and flavor comparable to real meat that the development of plant-based foods was ushered in, and insect protein will follow this development law.

Source: Zhiti Bridge