Sustainable Insect Farming: Feed the Future

Dear Colleagues,

During the last decade, we all have witnessed tremendous scientific interest in the exploitation of insects as food and feed, which has been aligned with a concomitant impressive commercial growth of the insect sector. To highlight the milestones in this ongoing process, in 2017, the EU approved the inclusion of insect protein in aquafeeds, and at the beginning of this year, EFSA released its affirmative opinion on the safety of dried yellow mealworms for human consumption. Moreover, the green light for the expansion of the use of insects to the poultry and swine industry at the EU level is expected to be given soon. Similar advances regarding the utilization of insects as a protein source are occurring worldwide.

One of the main advantages of insect farming that pours water over the mill of insect exploitation is its sustainability profile. In contrast to other agricultural systems that rely on intensification and external inputs, insect farming avoids the overexploitation of natural resources (e.g., land, water, etc.), and the use of organic side-streams as insect feed contributes to the sustainable management of biowastes.

In this context, the focus of this Topical Collection is on recent advances in sustainable insect production related to (but not limited to):

• Insect-rearing technologies and methods (diet formulations, rearing protocols, etc.);
• The inclusion of insects in animal diets and aquafeeds (feeding trials, etc.);
• Environmental footprints;
• Insect-based food and feed products (insect processing, nutritional value, etc.);
• Economic and business aspects (marketing, etc.);
• Waste management through insect bioconversion;
• Insect–plant synergies for complete protein design in food and feed;
• Novel uses of insects and their products/byproducts (fertilizers, etc.);
• Public perception and consumers’ acceptance of the use of insects for food and feed;
• Lifecycle assessment (LCA), social LCA (SLCA), and technoeconomic assessment (TEA).

Therefore, we kindly invite you to submit papers to this Topical Collection that will further illuminate and unfold the potential of insect exploitation.

Dr. Christos I. Rumbos
Mr. János-István Petrusán
Prof. Dr. Christos G. Athanassiou
Collection Editors

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