2023-09-02 11:08:14
the new interest in “alternative proteins” has opened the door of l‘Catalan agro-industry in the world of insects, a sector still in the consolidation phase, but which has experienced a certain boom in recent years. According to data from the Department of Climate Action, Catalonia has since 2020 with five farms registered to produce insects and three more projects in process. Despite this growth, the business today focuses on feed, especially for fish farms. Despite this, institutions such as the European Food Safety Authority already speak of insects as “ideal candidates” to complement traditional sources of protein and companies such as Tarragona’s Iberinsect are working to anticipate the boom in their consumption.
“Twenty years ago, eating sushi was something special and if we talked about it with our grandparents, they told us that we were not well, but today it is something that everyone does. The future belongs to the brave, therefore, God will say,” he tells the ACN Jordi Calbet from the offices d‘Iberinsect a Valls. In his opinion, this business can be very important in the coming years, first for animal feed and, later, in human food.
Ibertinsect was born three years ago thinking about the need to find protein beyond traditional animal husbandry. In fact, Calbet notes that Europe is today a continent “deficient in proteins” and that it depends a lot on imports. This, added to the increase in the population and climate change, makes me believe that the exploitation of innovative foods such as insects can be profitable and “strategic” for the sustainability of the food system in the short term. “Food sovereignty is part of the DNA of the insect sector,” he points out.
From sector also seeks to highlight that raising insects has a very low environmental impact compared to traditional livestock farming. In this sense, Calbet states that the water and carbon footprint of its business is very small. He also explains that worms or crickets do not generate methane gas or consume water, so they are a “very efficient” way to generate protein. In addition, remember that the natural diet of fish or pigs incorporates insects so it is positive that these are again part of the feed in modern farms.
No own regulations
Despite the good prospects of the insect business, regulation is still a step behind. “All the places where insects are raised are considered livestock farms, the fact is that there is no sector-specific regulation like there is for pigs, poultry or cattle,” the chief explains to ACN of livestock sectoral organization of the department ofClimate Action, Gumersindo Villa To solve this, from 2020 insect farms can be registered in Catalonia, a step that five farms have taken so far, two in the Ebre and Tarragona regions, two in Lleida and one in Girona.
“It’s an emerging sector”, acknowledges Villa before highlighting that Catalonia has been a “pioneer” in drawing up its own regulatory framework for this activity. Regarding the markets of these farms, it indicates that they go mainly to animal feed, especially to fish farms. However, the Government points out that in Europe there are already four varieties permitted for human consumption, but the most popular are the domestic cricket and the one known as the “meal worm”.
Villa points out that the requirements asked of the sector are not complicated, so his biggest challenge is to find a stable market for his production that could go through nutritional supplementation. For the head of the department, it is clear that insects have a “protein value” that makes them interesting as food, especially at a time of increased costs linked to inflation, drought or rising energy costs.
Despite the interest of producers and administrations, the human consumption of insects is still anecdotal in Europe and their presence in supermarkets, testimonial. To change that, some academic voices have been defending its nutritional, economic and sustainability benefits for a long time. In fact, this same year the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) published a survey which ensured that more than half of the population thought that their intake could be an “alternative and sustainable” source of protein. In addition, insect consumption was reported to improve gut health and increase blood concentrations of amino acids.
A common practice in Europe for centuries
From the UOC they also detail that entomophagy – this name is given to the ingestion of insects as food by humans and animals – was a common practice in Europe even in the time of the Roman Empire. In addition, they remember that the intake of insects of all kinds has remained alive to this day in countries such as China, Thailand, Japan, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Brazil in a more or less widespread way.
In a context strongly marked by global warming and the constant increase in population worldwide, in 2013 the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has also chosen to promote the need to examine modern food science practices to increase trade, consumption and acceptance of insects. Although its expansion has not been very fast so far, the sector’s optimism has translated into an interest that the Government certifies is in full growth.
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