**3. European Authorizations**

Based on the regulation of NFs, as of December 2021, four authorizations deal with insects. First, the EC authorized the placing on the EU market of dried *Tenebrio molitor* larvae (yellow mealworm) as an NF. The application requested for dried *Tenebrio molitor* larvae to be used as whole, dried insects in the form of snacks and as a food ingredient in several food products, the target population being the general population. The applicant (SAS EAP Group, France) made a request to the Commission for the protection of the proprietary data submitted in the application.

Based on the applicant's request, whole, dried larvae or larval powder were proposed to be used as ingredients in food products, defined, using the FoodEx2 hierarchy, as snacks other than chips and similar (maximum use level, ML = 100 g NF/100 g product), protein and protein components for sports people (ML = 10 g NF/100 g), biscuits (ML = 10 g NF/100 g), legumes-based dishes (ML = 10 g NF/100 g), and uncooked pastabased dishes (ML = 10 g NF/100 g) (see Table 1 for a complete list of products) [28].


**Table 1.** Food products and the maximum use levels reported in the four EFSA opinions on insects as novel foods (NFs).


**Table 1.** *Cont.*

W, whole; F, frozen; D, dried; P, powder. Applicant: 1 SAS EAP Group [28]; 2 Fair Insects BV (Protix Company) [29–31].

The Commission also authorized the placing on the market of a second insect, *Locusta migratoria* (migratory locust), as an NF on 12 November 2021. The request dealt with frozen and dried forms of the insect to be used in different food categories (Table 1). The applicant was Fair Insects BV (Protix Company, the Netherlands). The NF consists of frozen,

dried, and powder forms of the migratory locust, intended to be marketed as a snack or as a food ingredient in several food products. Moreover, Protix Company requested data protection [29]. On 8 December 2021, two requests by Fair Insects BV (Protix Company, the Netherlands) were authorized as NFs. The authorized requests dealt with frozen and dried formulations of whole *Tenebrio molitor* and frozen and dried formulations of whole *Acheta domesticus* (house cricket) (Table 1). The applicant requested protection of the data for both NFs [30,31].

The other 10 applications dealt with *Tenebrio molitor* (Nutri'Earth—France; Belgian Insect Industry Federation—Belgium; Ynsect—France), *Acheta domesticus* (Belgian Insect Industry Federation—Belgium; Cricket One—Vietnam), *Gryllodes sigillatus* (SAS EAP Group— France), *Locusta migratoria* (Belgian Insect Industry Federation—Belgium), *Alphitobius diaperinus* (Proti-Farm Holding NV—the Netherlands), *Hermetia illucens* (Enorm Biofactory A/S—Denmark), and *Apis mellifera* (Finnish Beekeepers' Association—Finland).

Based on the applicants' proposed uses, all of the NFs were listed in the "Snacks other than chips and similar" products as whole products. Thus, all of the enterprises will be able to place on the market products containing only insects that have been dried, frozen, or ground into powder (in relation to the request). These include bakery products, such as bread, biscuits, and crackers containing mealworms and crickets. Six different types of products referred to pasta-like products, all listed in the two requests made by Fair Insects BV (Protix Company) for mealworms and crickets. Moreover, three different types of pizza were listed for these requests.

Edible insects are commonly presented and positioned to consumers as meat alternatives [17,32]. This argumen<sup>t</sup> is not supported by research or entrepreneurial ideas, but is wrongly based on the idea that insects could be a substitute for meat products, providing significant environmental benefits. Edible insects are more than an alternative to meats; especially in relation to the nutritional–economic status of the consumers/country, insects could be positioned as a major protein or energy food, decreasing the gaps between the rich and poor nutritional diets across the developing and the developed countries (without negatively affecting the environment). Furthermore, in the developed countries, consumers are unwilling to accept the direct substitution of a "nice" slice of meat with a "strange" dish of insects (food neophobia) [33–36]. In this contest, meat-like products are only partially reported in the lists. Indeed, sausages, meatballs, and meat burgers were listed with an inclusion of approximately 30–40% (*w*/*w*) of frozen locusts, mealworms, and crickets, or approximately 10–16% (*w*/*w*) of dried/powdered insects. Contrarily, meat imitates will be intended as more insect-based, with a maximum of 50% of dried/powdered insects or 80% of frozen insects.

Interestingly, a high number of vegetable-based foods was reported in the requests. Vegetable-based dishes, meals, soups, salads, and canned/jarred items were requested by all the applicants. Moreover, oilseed and primary derivatives from nuts and similar seeds were listed in the applications with quite high maximum contents of insects (respectively, 20–30 dried or powder NF g/100 g product and 40 frozen NF g/100 g products).

It seems like producers are going to use edible insects in beverages more as a curiosity, and likewise the caterpillar of *Comadia redtenbacheri* (gusanos rojos in Spanish) in a mezcal traditional recipe [37]. The percentages in beer and beer-like, mixed alcohol drinks, as well as unsweetened spirits and liqueurs, range between 1% and 2% *<sup>w</sup>*/*<sup>w</sup>*.

Foods intended for sports people are also listed as "protein and protein components for sports people" and whey powder. In these products, the insect contents are 10%, 20%, or 40%.

### **4. Consumer Acceptance of Insects as Food**

In the past few years, a considerable number of studies has been published on consumers' acceptance of alternative proteins, including edible insects as food [32]. Several recent up-to-date reviews on eating insects and insect-based foods provide a critical overview within the EU [4], as well as globally [38]. In addition, Sogari et al. [39] provided a comprehensive perspective on the overall state of research activity on consumer attitude and behavior toward entomophagy without date restrictions. Their results showed that the number of publications has increased substantially since 2015, after the publication of the FAO report "Edible Insects: Future Prospects for Food and Feed Security" [1,5], and the trend has maintained since then [38]. Most of these studies focused on European consumers, with only a few of them including a cross-country comparison (e.g., Italian and Dutch samples in [40]). As a result of the majority of these studies being conducted in Western countries, researchers have investigated consumers' reactions to processed insect-based foods such as snacks (e.g., biscuits, chips, and bars) rather than whole and traditional dishes with insects [4,41].

This rising publication trend calls out for a need to provide a thematic synthesis. First, compared to even few years ago, as Dagevos [38] suggested, we have gained a considerable understanding of consumers' acceptance of insect-eating. It is now clear that a high level of food neophobia (i.e., fear of new foods) implies a low inclination to consider insects as a food to try and purchase, regardless of the respondents' origin [42,43]. Another motivation of Western consumers' aversion to eating insects is disgust, a primary emotion and a major aversive reaction toward insect consumption since research on entomophagy started [5,41].

The aversion to insects as a food is also strictly linked to the food culture [24]. Several studies have shown that the stronger the gastronomic culture within the society, the greater the rejection, and vice versa [4,40]. This is also linked to other people's opinions (social norms), which could strongly affect the acceptance of consuming this novel food. On the contrary, individuals who have already had a positive experience of eating edible insects show a higher willingness to eat insects in the future [4]. Moreover, previous experience of eating insects plays a significant role in the willingness to repeat consumption due to a positive perception of tastiness (e.g., expected liking) and reduced food neophobia [38,41,44].

Several studies have analyzed the effects of information about the benefits of entomophagy on the attitudes toward insect food products, indicating that this strategy increased insects' acceptance [32,41]. For example, Mancini et al. [4] showed how an education lecture about the ecological, safety, nutritional, and taste-related aspects of insecteating increased the willingness to try insects and insect-containing foods among a group of university students. However, consumers' response to these information treatments is strongly correlated with subjective interests in the nutritional or environmental benefits of the eaten food [38]. Thus, it is likely that young people, such as students, who are sensitive to the current challenges in food sustainability [45] will more likely be responsive to information about the health or sustainability aspects of insects as food than older consumers. In fact, early adopters of insect food products are often identified in young adults [4], especially males [32,46]. In particular, it has been noted by Jones [47] that in her study, many young people of school age welcomed the opportunity to have their preconceptions surrounding what is acceptable challenged in light of a more sustainable food system. Besides gender and age, the dietary regimen also plays a role with respect to consumers' attitudes toward entomophagy. For example, Elorinne et al. [46] showed that non-vegan vegetarians' attitudes toward eating insects were the most positive, whereas vegans held the most negative attitude, considering eating insects as immoral and irresponsible. In fact, in the Netherlands, supermarkets display insect-based convenience foods such as burgers and nuggets in the same section as vegetarian products [48].

Familiar food preparation is another driver for insect consumption [4,44]. Thus, the current market strategy is to develop highly processed insect-based foods that are familiar in Western diets such as burgers, bread, biscuits, crackers, crisps, candy bars, shakes, soups, sauces, and pasta [12,38]. This rationality of "hiding" the appearance of insects and including them in crushed, bruised, or powdered forms, rather than visible and whole, is supported by a large amount of empirical evidence [4,41]. It seems obvious that to reduce disgust-based aversion and consequently raise the acceptance toward entomophagy, insects need to be processed in a form that resembles known products (i.e., familiar-looking).

Another recent stream of consumer acceptance studies focuses on using insects as a feed source, which is sometimes defined as "indirect entomophagy" [49]. From the literature, it seems that consumers will have higher acceptance of using insects as feed for farmed animals than as food for human consumption [32]. In fact, in a recent study, Menozzi et al. [50] found that there is a potential consumer interest in considering insects as a protein substitute in the poultry sector.

### **5. Conclusions and Future Prospects**

World population growth and the increase in food demands push scholars to research alternative protein sources for both human and animal consumption. As presented in the previous sections, the last decade has seen a growing interest from the public and private sectors in research in the sphere of edible insects, as well as significant steps forward from the legislative perspective in the EU. Moving from entomophobic countries such as most of those in Europe to more open entomophilic societies will be favored by common and shared stakeholder efforts, including national governments, the research community, and the private sector [24]. This latter will include actors across the production, supply, and consumption of food, which will be crucial to industry success [48]. Undoubtedly, this sector is gaining momentum, and its potential relies not only on food and feed, but also on the context of a circular economy. In particular, insects have the potential to convert a wide range of organic byproducts into food and feedstuffs, which then go back into the production cycle [51]. However, due to the current lack of evidence related to the safety of the final products, EU regulations still prohibit the use of waste products as a substrate for growing edible insects. Our review showed how the most edible insect species, i.e., crickets, mealworms, grasshoppers, and locusts, investigated in consumer studies [41] are those already authorized by the EFSA (i.e., *Tenebrio molitor* and *Locusta migratoria*), or currently subject to a safety evaluation by the authority. As suggested by House [17], these species are the "industry standard" food insects in Europe as the positive result of a number of technical, practical, and legislative factors.

Although some adventurous consumers and sensation-seekers could try a visible and whole insect [38], it seems clear that the marketing strategy adopted by most insect companies is to develop processed products (e.g., bakery, meat, pasta, and pizza products) in which insects are "hidden" in the form of a powder or similar. In addition, it has to be highlighted how even if the current legislation and industry are contributing to the idea that insects are a legitimate and edible (i.e., safe) food, this does not mean that they will instantly be accepted and consumed [48]. Acceptance will especially depend upon education, especially in the context of schools and young individuals, with the aim of changing mis- and preconceptions about edible insects [47].

The prospect for future research should then concentrate on different aspects: (i) The economic convenience of introducing insect meals into animals' diets, both in the developing and the developed countries. Future studies on insects as feed and food should better investigate the structure cost and profitability of insect farms. This type of analysis could facilitate the development of other farms to undertake the production of insects and also support the sustainable development of this sector from the circular economy perspective. (ii) Consumers' willingness to pay for eating insects, insectbased foods, and animal feed with insects as meal. Thus far, a considerable number of consumer-oriented studies have focused on consumers' attitudes and behavior toward entomophagy. However, studies investigating consumers' willingness to pay for such products in real settings are lacking. Future research on this aspect is also important to push farms to embrace this new sector of activity. (iii) The role of governments in supporting the insect farming sector. Governments play a decisive role in facilitating a shift toward new and sustainable food solutions. The sustainability of food systems is a global issue, and food systems will have to adapt to face diverse challenges. As mentioned in the "Farm to Fork strategy," all actors of the food chain must play their part in achieving the sustainability of the food chain. Farmers and producers need to

transform their production methods more quickly and make the best use of naturebased, technological, digital, and space-based solutions to deliver better climate and environmental results, increase climate resilience, and reduce and optimize the use of inputs. However, these solutions require not only human and financial investments, but also a collective approach involving public authorities at all levels of governance that could increase participation and provide a voice for farms and producers in global processes related to food. (iv) Promoting the use of insects from the packaging and labeling standpoint. Attractive naming and descriptions, communication of health benefits, branding (logo), and product image are important to consumers' perceptions of insect foods. Future entomophagy research should therefore focus on improving marketing strategies to ensure that insects and insect-based products become more appealing. A correct communication strategy could ameliorate access to insects and reduce future generations' unfamiliarity, inappropriateness, and disgust that are the major causes of the non-acceptance of insects today.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, S.M., G.S. and R.M.; writing—original draft preparation, S.M., G.S., R.M. and S.E.D.; writing—review and editing, S.M., G.S., R.M., S.E.D., D.M. and G.P.; funding acquisition, S.M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** The research was funded by the University of Pisa, PRA (Progetti di Ricerca di Ateneo) gran<sup>t</sup> No. PRA\_2020\_12 (Produzione di Insetti come Feed e Food (PIFF)).

**Acknowledgments:** The authors kindly acknowledge the FOODS journal Award Committee who conferred to article https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/8/7/270 (accessed on 23 January 2022), Foods Best Paper Award 2019, granting this publication free of charge.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
