After the mealworms, locusts too will soon be food and it will not be uncommon to find them on our tables
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerousAfter i mealworms, even the locusts will soon be food and therefore it will not be rare to find them on our tables. Following the approval of the EFSA last July, the European Commission has now given the definitive go-ahead.
In search of new sources to satisfy the food crisis, the European Commission has recently been evaluating "alternative" foods (at least for our cultures). Now it is the turn of the migratory Locust, a species of insect belonging to the Acrididae family.
Read also: Crocodile meat is about to end up on our tables, green light from the Ministry of Health
The novel food will consist of frozen, dried and powdered forms and will be intended to be marketed as a snack or as an ingredient in a range of food products. In frozen and dried forms, however, the legs and wings must be removed by the operator to reduce the risk of intestinal constipation.
The locust is therefore now, to all intents and purposes, a Novel Food, that is a food that had not been consumed to a significant extent by man in the EU before May 15, 1997, when the first regulation on new products and new food ingredients.
The ok comes following the positive evaluation of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) received last July and which included various aspects, including nutritional, toxicological and chemical evaluation. Read also: Locusts for food use: after the moths, EFSA gives the green light to the consumption of these edible insects in Europe
What happened today is one of the last steps in the procedure for the authorization of the migratory locust as a novel food - reads the website of the European Commission - Member States have given the green light to the Commission to allow a food business operator, who had requested such authorization, to place the product on the market of the EU. The Commission will now adopt a legal act to this end
It is not the first authorized insect, as the ok to the locust comes after the one to the yellow meal worm.
Read also: Insects, ok from the EU for human consumption: mealworms approved for the first time
And it may not be the last. In fact, EFSA has recently expressed a positive opinion on the Tenebrius molitor (adult moth) and the acheta domesticus (a kind of cricket), on the basis of which the Commission will present the draft implementing acts to the next Standing Committee, which will be held at the end of November 2021.
In addition, there are 9 other applications for insects, which are currently being assessed by EFSA.
The EU responds (also) thus to thefood emergency.
Source: European Commission
Follow your Telegram | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok | Youtube
Read also:
- Insects, algae and jellyfish: the food of the future?
- Spirulina, Chlorella, fly larvae and mycoproteins, for scientists the key foods to feed the world in the near future
