*Review* **Exploring the Future of Edible Insects in Europe**

**Simone Mancini 1,2, Giovanni Sogari 3,\*, Salomon Espinosa Diaz 1, Davide Menozzi 3, Gisella Paci 1,2 and Roberta Moruzzo 1**


**Abstract:** The effects of population increase and food production on the environment have prompted various international organizations to focus on the future potential for more environmentally friendly and alternative protein products. One of those alternatives might be edible insects. Entomophagy, the practice of eating insects by humans, is common in some places but has traditionally been shunned in others, such as European countries. The last decade has seen a growing interest from the public and private sectors to the research in the sphere of edible insects, as well as significant steps forward from the legislative perspective. In the EU, edible insects are considered novel foods, therefore a specific request and procedure must be followed to place them in the market; in fact, until now, four requests regarding insects as a novel food have been approved. Insects could also be used as feed for livestock, helping to increase food production without burdening the environment (indirect entomophagy). Market perspectives for the middle of this decade indicate that most of the demand will be from the feed sector (as pet food or livestock feed production). Undoubtedly, this sector is gaining momentum and its potential relies not only in food, but also in feed in the context of a circular economy.

**Keywords:** entomophagy; novel food; mealworm; grasshopper; cricket; locust; acceptance; alternative protein; sustainability; neophobia

### **1. European Market of Insects**

In the last decade, the insect sector has increased worldwide, also reaching popularity via mass media communications, mostly when new regulations or outcomes are released in relation to its potential in all areas of food chain production. Indeed, insects, when compared to conventional livestock animals, require low amounts of water, land, and feed to produce the same quantity of nutritional molecules [1]. Insects, as poikilotherm animals, can convert feed (substrates) with high efficiency in their body, decreasing the feed conversion ratio. Several international agencies and organizations have identified insects as one of the players in the commercial food chain in the future and as an active actor in reducing the environmental impact while increasing animal production [1,2]. Several international organizations are supporting the sector worldwide, such as IPIFF (International Platform of Insects as Food and Feed, Brussels, Belgium), AFFIA (Asian Food and Feed Insect Association, Bangkok, Thailand), NACIA (North America Coalition for Insect Agriculture, Chicago, IL, USA), and IPAA (Insect Protein Association of Australia, Canberra, ACT). Edible insects are becoming a part of the human diet, directly or indirectly, in many regions of the world [3,4], even if they currently represent a niche market in Western societies [5]. According to the Global Market Insights report, in 2019, the size of the edible insects market exceeded 112 million USD [6]. Though the global market

**Citation:** Mancini, S.; Sogari, G.; Espinosa Diaz, S.; Menozzi, D.; Paci, G.; Moruzzo, R. Exploring the Future of Edible Insects in Europe. *Foods* **2022**, *11*, 455. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/foods11030455

Academic Editor: Andrea M Liceaga

Received: 15 December 2021 Accepted: 24 January 2022 Published: 3 February 2022

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**Copyright:** © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

data for edible insects are inconsistent, also given their short market history and consumer availability, different reports point to an overall growth of the market for edible insects [6–8]. The Global Market Insights report estimated that the edible insects market will grow by 47% between 2019 and 2026 [6]. It is expected that the largest increase might happen in North America and Europe [9]. The global edible insects market is segmented not only with regard to geography, but also by insect species, product type (e.g., whole insects, insect meal, and insect powder), and application (e.g., food and feed) [10]. As regards geography, the Asia–Pacific region led by Thailand, China, and Vietnam dominated the market in 2019 with around 41% of the market share in terms of revenue, followed, respectively, by Europe (22%) (led by the UK, the Netherlands, and France), Latin America (21%), North America (13%), and the Middle East and Africa (3%) [7]. Based on the insect type, beetles dominated the global edible insects market in 2019 with around 30% of the market share in terms of revenue, followed by caterpillars and Hymenoptera, respectively [7]. Insects and insect-based products are consumed in different forms: it is possible to find whole insects, or insects processed into food ingredients (e.g., flour or powder), which are then incorporated into final products (e.g., energy bars, burgers, or compound feed) [11,12]. Insects can be eaten roasted, fried, or boiled as a whole (which is the traditional way of preparation in most tropical countries), or they can be dried and ground and can then be added to foods otherwise [13].

In the past decade, in the edible insects market, numerous entrepreneurs and companies have become active in the production of insects [5]. Several initiatives have gradually transitioned from ambitious startups to well-established operators that are about to rapidly grow their production capacity. In Europe, the insect production sector was initially based mainly on small- to medium-sized startups, which undertook insect breeding in zoological gardens for biocontrol purposes or the production of animal feed [14]. Nowadays, the situation is different, and it is possible to find a certain number of insect feed business operators (iFeedBOs) (some of them are also active in food production activities) and some insect food business operators (iFoodBOs).

In the market factsheets developed each year by the IPIFF, it is possible to find specific information about these two kinds of operators. In Europe, from the 500 tons of insect-based products (whole insects, insect ingredients, and products with added edible insects) in 2019, the market will expand to 260,000 tons by 2030 [15], with powder/insect ingredients accounting for over 75% of the total. Insect FoodBOs comprise micro-companies (81%) with fewer than 10 employees, followed by small (16%) and medium-sized (3%) companies, with the number of employees between 10 and 50 or 50 and 250, respectively. The level of investment varies a lot among the operators. For most of them (63%), the investment is under 500,000 euros, and only 3% receive investments up to 25 million [16]. With the growth of the insect sector and growing investment, more jobs will be created (not only direct jobs, but also indirect ones, such as in specialized retail, logistics, administration, or research). Insect FoodBOs are involved in the different stages of insect production: primary production, processing into insect ingredients, and preparation of insect-based food. In all, 28% of the iFoodBOs are involved in all of the stages, 19% are involved in production and processing, 12%—in processing and preparation, 36%—in preparation, 3%—in production, and almost 3%—in the selling of different edible insect products to end consumers through their respective channels (e.g., online platforms). The majority of iFoodBOs are concentrated in northern European countries, led by the United Kingdom, Germany, and Belgium, and followed by the Netherlands, France, Finland, and Denmark [12]. As a matter of fact, according to some authors [1,17], the Netherlands has to be considered as the European "hub" of early research associated with the human consumption of insects in the first decade of the 21st century. The insect FoodBOs segmen<sup>t</sup> their final market, choosing between the national, European, and extra-European markets. In 2020, the majority (more than 60%) of the European iFoodBOs primarily focused the sale of products in the country of production. However, by 2025, iFoodBOs are expected to concentrate most of their activity on the EU market, even if they decide to maintain their activity at both the national and international

level. As regards iFeedBOs, according to the IPIFF, most of them are SMEs (i.e., small enterprises with 10–50 employees or medium-sized enterprises with 50–250 employees). Micro-enterprises (1–10 employees) also represent more than 40% of the companies active in feed production. By 2030, it is expected that almost one out of two FBOs will be a large enterprise—with more than 250 employees. Insect FeedBOs have managed to raise over one billion euros in investments—figures that may reach three billion euros by 2025 [18].

By the middle of the decade, most of the demand for insect meal will likely lie in the pet food sector (almost 40–50% of the insect meal produced) and in aquaculture feed production (reaching 25–35% in terms of the share) [19]. Indeed, until 2021, in the European Union, insects as feed were only authorized for aquaculture (Commission Regulation 2017/893) and pet nutrition. Recently, the EU member states voted positively on a regulation aimed at enabling the use of insect-processed animal proteins (PAPs) in poultry and pig nutrition (Commission Regulation 2021/1372 of 17 August 2021). Thus, according to the IPIFF forecasts [18], the next relevant market for insects as iFeedBOs in terms of the quantity of insect meal sold will be the poultry (20–30%) and pig markets (5–15%), which will see a rapid increase following entry into force of the approval of insect PAPs.

The potential use of edible insects in European countries is currently debated among many stakeholders of the food supply chain. This paper aims to provide a concise but comprehensive state of the art on how insects could be used as food in light of the new legislative framework and recent EU novel food authorizations. In addition, we underline the crucial role of consumer acceptance of edible insects and reflect on how consumers will play a role in this sector. Our discussion takes into consideration the current situation at the European level in the framework of research policy and business perspective.

### **2. Regulation of Insects as Food in the EU**

Before insect-based food products started to attract a significant level of attention in the European food market, small-scale production and trade of edible insects had not been considered sufficiently important to be subject to legislative matters or safety standards supervision [20]. In fact, in most European countries, the consumption of edible insects is still very low and often seen as socially improper [21]. This is also because in Europe, edible insects and insect-based products are classified as novel foods (NFs) [11], that is, food products that do not have a history of human consumption within the region or country in question or, more specifically, any food that was not consumed "significantly" prior to May 1997, according to the EU regulations. However, interest in insect-based products has been increasing in the last few years, triggered especially by the potential environmental, economic, and food security benefits that insects could offer [22,23]. The novelty of using insects for human consumption, as well as the high interest from the public and the media in such products [5], poses important questions and concerns regarding the risks derived from insect production, processing, and consumption [24]. Moreover, the need in reliable guidelines has concerned producers and slowed down the growth of the sector, as also highlighted jointly in 2018 by NACIA, IPIFF, AFFIA, and IPAA [5]. Answering these questions, and therefore ensuring the safety of consumers, requires valid scientific assessments that adequately inform policymakers with the responsibility to authorize the incorporation of such products into the market.

Consequently, in 2015, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published its first scientific opinion on the risks associated with the production and consumption of farmed insects as food and feed [25]. It covered considerations about potential allergenic and environmental risks, as well as chemical and biological hazards linked to external factors such as the methods used for their production, the substrates they are fed on, and the lifecycle stage at which they are harvested, among others. The EFSA concluded that as long as insects are fed with currently permitted feed materials, the potential occurrence of such hazards is expected to be similar to that of other non-processed protein sources. This means that insects can only be safely reared on substrates of vegetable origin or specific allowed animal-origin materials, preventing the possibility of using substrates containing manure

and other waste materials. This opinion laid the groundwork for a new European regulation on insects as NF, i.e., Regulation (EU) 2015/2283. According to this new regulation, insect food products may be commercialized only if authorized by the European Commission (EC). The process of obtaining such authorization is very straightforward: anyone who intends to place an NF on the EU market must submit an application to the EC. After the application is verified and validated, it becomes available to all the member states, and the EFSA is requested to provide a scientific safety assessment within nine months from a valid application. Based on this opinion, authorization is granted or not. This regulation also indicates the specific insects that can be utilized as NFs, labeling recommendations for insect-based products, as well as general conditions for the inclusion of NFs in the union list, which is updated by the EC and serves as a reference for economic operators who wish to place an authorized NF on the market (Figure 1).

**Figure 1.** Novel food (NF) authorization process. \* This amount of time can be longer if the EFSA requests additional information from the applicant. \*\* The Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed. 1,2 *Acheta domesticus* (Belgian Insect Industry Federation—Belgium; Cricket One—Vietnam). 3 *Locusta migratoria* (Belgian Insect Industry Federation—Belgium). 4 *Apis mellifera* (Finnish Beekeepers' Association—Finland). 5 *Alphitobius diaperinus* (Proti-Farm Holding NV—the Netherlands). 6 *Hermetia illucens* (Enorm Biofactory A/S—Denmark). 7,8,9 *Tenebrio molitor* (Nutri'Earth—France; Belgian Insect Industry Federation—Belgium; Ynsect—France). 10 *Gryllodes sigillatus* (SAS EAP Group—Saint-Orens-de-Gameville, France). 11,12 *Tenebrio molitor* (SAS EAP Group—France; Protix Company—the Netherlands). 13 *Acheta domesticus* (Protix Company, Fair Insects BV—Dongen, the Netherlands). 14 *Locusta migratoria* (Protix Company, Fair Insects BV—Dongen, the Netherlands).

More recently, Regulations (EU) 2017/2469 and (EU) 2017/893 specify some rules regarding the administrative and scientific requirements to an application to request authorization of commercialization of an NF in the EU market, as well as some amendments of the general criteria for insect and insect protein production, with particular attention to the substrate options that can be used to rear them, which are limited to those permitted for other livestock species.

Although, on the one hand, the highly restrictive regulations for the production and commercialization of insects and insect-based products in Europe allow governments to ensure the safety of consumers, on the other hand, they also slow down the development of an industry capable of offering potential environmental and economic benefits [26]. At the same time, in some countries, the lack of formal standards for production have led to uncertainty and concern among many insect farmers, providing an unstable basis for the industry (though also opening the possibility for the industry itself to innovate in the development of standards) [27]. Therefore, new scientific evidence enabling an optimized and improved assessment and the identification of specific critical control points in the entire production and processing chain of insects is essential.
