The application of insects in pet food and its safety analysisThe safety analysis of insects

More and more pet food companies are extracting insect proteins to produce food. Insect proteins produce a much lower carbon footprint than beef, chicken or salmon because the six-legged animal feeds primarily on low-grade food waste, grows quickly, and doesn't require much room for breeding. Livestock farming is an important source of greenhouse gases and deforestation. While demand for meat has declined during the Covid-19 pandemic due to supply chain disruptions and reduced household incomes, it is expected that in the long term, demand for meat will grow in tandem with the global population, posing a threat to biodiversity and natural ecosystems.

Rachel Kanter, co-founder of European company Entroma Petfood, said insects are a rich source of protein and that producing a kilogram of insects requires 10 times less food and water than beef and up to 15 times less. Founded in 2018, Entoma offers cat and dog food, has a new distributor in South Korea, and is looking for a distributor in Asia.

Will Bisset, the company's director of sales and innovation, said the company had £1 million ($1.28 million) in sales as of August 2020 and was planning to launch cat food in 2021. Yora currently sells in 16 countries and territories, with distribution agreements with Taiwan, South Korea and Japan in mid-2020.

Both companies said pet owners are most concerned about whether insect food is delicious and nutritious. "They worry that it has no nutritional value, but it's actually easier to digest than most traditional meat sources, and it doesn't contain any antibiotics or growth hormone (traditional meats) that would normally be found in meat,"

The British Veterinary Council told the BBC last year that some insect-based foods may be more suitable for pets than quality steaks. Simon Doherty, president of the association, later explained that even with insect protein alternatives, the likelihood of large-scale transfer of protein from livestock is small in the near future. "When it comes to compounding whole foods, insect protein offers a smarter option for pet owners who want to offer a meat-free diet, rather than their usual pet homemade vegetarian or vegan diet, which tends to lead to poorer pet health and well-being – insect-based products are tasty, nutritious and bioavailable." Doherty said.

The price of insect pet food is in the mid-to-high-end market, but market research shows that the pet care industry in Asia is expected to grow as more people see pets as part of the family and are willing to pay for their health.

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Over the past decade, the use of recipes for black fly larvae, crickets and other arthropods in mainstream pet food has become increasingly popular. Still, research on insects as protein and oil sources for novel pet food is limited. The following is a more comprehensive analysis of the safety of insects:

01

Safety of insect trophic composition

Edible insects contain water, crude protein, crude fat, carbohydrates, trace elements and other nutrients that humans and animals need on a daily basis (Gou Mengxing et al., 2020). Insects have the highest protein content, accounting for 31% to 72%; edible insects are also rich in chitin (Han Tan, 2020).

(1) Allergens

Allergens (mostly macromolecular substances, proteins, glycoproteins, lipoproteins and nucleic acids, etc.) enter the body to cause abnormal reactions to the immune system, this phenomenon is called allergies (Hou Tingzheng et al., 2011). Symptoms of allergic reactions include diarrhea, hives, difficulty breathing, etc., which can lead to shock and death.

Insects contain a large number of macromolecular substances, such as chitin and protein, and allergic phenomena may occur after eating them in allergic animals (Huang Ting et al., 2018). The content of chitin in insects can reach 20% to 60%, and the content in shrimp and crab shells can reach 10% to 30% (Yang Yongming, 2015). Therefore, it is necessary to do a good job of risk warning when developing and utilizing insects (Tian Xinping, 2016). In edible insects, the content of water-soluble protein and salt-soluble protein allergens is very low, and after sufficient alkali washing, it can be used for protein food additives to improve the functional characteristics of the product, but the presence of corresponding allergens should also be noted. The content of allergens in alcohol-soluble and alkali-soluble is high, and it must be desensitized before it can be applied.

(2) Insect purine content

In insects, the content of IMP (hypoxanthine nucleotide) is higher than that of GMP (guanine nucleotide), and studies have shown that the taste nucleotide is mainly consistent with animal foods such as Shanghai smoked fish and chicken in wasp larvae, but the total content of purine in vespa larvae does not exceed 150mg/100g, which belongs to medium purine food (Zhang Liping, 2005). Mealworm, barley worm and cricket larvae contain significantly higher purine content than egg whites. Moreover, the single purine derivative and total purine content of the three insect species vary greatly depending on the insect species (Zhao Shudi et al., 2021).

(3) Anti-nutritional factors

The anti-nutritional factors contained in insects are not produced by the insects themselves, but are obtained from plant foods. Because plants contain a certain amount of natural anti-nutritional factors, after insect feeding, some anti-nutritional factors cannot be catabolized by insects, so they remain in insects (Lü Bin, 2016).

Common anti-nutritional factors include glutamate and digestive enzyme inhibitors, lectins, phytic acid, saponins and glycoside alkaloids, cyanosides, glucosinolic oxalic acids and oxalic acids, and tannins. Tannic acid, oxalic acid, hydrocyanic acid, and phytic acid can be detected from edible insects.

02

Mold and its toxin residues

Mycotoxin residues in insects may originate from the following ways: feeding moldy raw materials contaminated with mycotoxins, especially plant raw materials; moldy changes when the finished insect products are damp during storage and transportation; or processing utensils, packaging bags, etc. have been contaminated with mycotoxins.

03

Heavy metal residue

It is an indisputable fact that heavy metals remain in soil, water and plants. These heavy metals can be passed through the food chain, accumulated and even enriched in insects, resulting in excessive heavy metal content in insects, thus causing food safety problems.

04

Safety in the processing of insects

At present, insect processing uses one or more of these methods such as freeze-drying, sun-dried, boiling, hot air drying and microwave drying, as well as organic solvent extraction. (Dicke M et al，2020）。

Biosecurity needs to be considered during insect processing, for example, the composition of the microbiome of insects during complex ontology also changes, which may be affected by dietary and environmental conditions. Insects are processed by equipment multiple times at high temperature (such as 100 °C hot air drying for 3 hours, 180 °C microwave drying for 15 minutes), or organic solvent extraction, can kill the insects while killing the microorganisms carried inside and outside the body; some products with high biosecurity requirements also require another irradiation treatment after bagging and packaging to kill all microorganisms, pests and so on that may exist. Therefore, the final product of insects obtained after treatment by the above methods (such as dried insects or insect meal) is extremely unlikely to carry pathogenic microorganisms.

05

Restrictive amino acids in insect pet food

As a source of protein, the researchers identified which amino acids might need to be replenished to ensure that insects could provide pets with all the protein their bodies needed. These restrictive amino acids vary depending on the insect species and pet needs. For example, methionine in the larvae of the black soldier fly is a restrictive amino acid for both cats and dogs.

To compensate for this deficiency, pet food formulators may need to add more protein sources, just as pet food manufacturers need to combine insect ingredients with protein sources rich in specific amino acids that are key to limiting insect diets.

Part of the source: Zhou Haiyong and other "safety analysis of edible and feed insects", PIIS pet industry innovation, only for learning and exchange, if it involves infringement, please contact Xiaobian!