It was European regulation 2283/2015 on novel foods that opened the way to the trade of edible insects in Italy as well, starting next year. Faced with this opportunity, the Centre for Sustainable Development of the Società Umanitaria, under the leadership of president Andrea Mascaretti and in collaboration with a team of sociologists and lecturers from IULM University, decided to conduct a survey to find out what Italians think about the matter.

The results

The sample proved positive towards the adoption of these new foods: more than 47 per cent of respondents are in favour of liberalising insects for food use, while 28 per cent of people say they would try eating insects. To these, however, we must add a further roughly 5 per cent of people who say they would be willing to eat them, but only if they cannot see them. This is in fact one of the main deterrents to incorporating insects into our eating habits: the feeling of repulsion that our cultural tradition instils in us.

Read also: More than a thousand insect species are eaten around the world. Here is a map of where and how, with expert opinion

In fact, we already eat insects without knowing it — if we consider, for example, that red food colouring is derived from the cochineal insect, and that insect residues are present in and tolerated in many other foods. The research team reports that today the average annual unwitting consumption of insects per person stands at around 500 grams. The survey also highlighted a gap specifically in the area of information and communication. Foods that respondents say they would more readily eat include, for example, protein bars made with cricket flour or ant-based snacks, as well as tacos with fried crickets. Flours derived from insects in particular are a great resource as a protein and nutrient supplement, without having to eat succulent whole insects.

Younger people proved more open to this novelty, as did people of male gender (58 per cent compared to 42 per cent), while 38 per cent of so-called millennials say they are ready to eat insects. A number of Michelin-starred chefs have already experimented with using them in the kitchen, and this can be a strong driver. Moreover, crustaceans can be likened to insects, and tastes change easily — the success sushi has achieved over the years being a prime example.

The insects associated with positive characteristics — the ant, the cricket and the bee — are precisely those that also enjoy the most success from a food standpoint, and that people are more willing to eat without hesitation. At the bottom of the rankings, both in terms of popularity and appetite appeal, are cockroaches, flies and mosquitoes.

To better understand the survey results, we can examine the data in detail. While 47 per cent of the overall sample say they favour the liberalisation of insects for food use, this figure rises among those who enjoy ethnic food (57 per cent), but also among those who tend to choose locally sourced food and travel abroad, and are therefore more open to different eating habits (49 per cent). It is interesting to note that the percentages are higher among respondents who care about the environment: 50 per cent of them are open to the commercialisation of edible insects, and more than 30 per cent would eat them. Sustainability is indeed an important factor in dietary choices.

Why eat insects

The figures presented by the Centre for Sustainable Development in terms of resource consumption for the production of meat for human consumption are very high and represent part of the motivation driving the centre to work on insects. In any case, a great many populations around the world have always eaten insects, primarily gathered from the wild. Today, 1,900 edible species are already known.

With livestock farming for meat generating greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 18 per cent of global emissions produced by human activities, insects offer an interesting ecological alternative to help meet the protein needs of a growing population. All the more so when one considers the United Nations' Zero Hunger goal, which aims to end hunger for the roughly 800 million people who still do not have adequate food today.

Eating insects is sustainable

Insects are more efficient in terms of energy and water consumption. Because they are cold-blooded animals, they have a high nutritional conversion efficiency — the index that calculates the amount of feed required to produce a one-kilogram weight gain in the animal. This index, which stands at around eight kilograms for cattle, averages two for an insect. Furthermore, and this is one of their greatest strengths, they do not compete with the human food chain — meaning they can feed on materials we cannot eat. From food waste to animal slurry.

Indeed, many crops that are currently used to feed conventional farmed animals could instead be consumed directly by humans. Using insects as feed for meat animals or farmed fish is another possibility that is being investigated, and it would free up resources for human consumption. In May 2017, a new regulation was approved in this regard, permitting the use of certain insects in feed for fish farming.

With these regulations, Europe is trying to fill a regulatory gap: while all foods and feeds must be approved and follow a certain procedure guaranteeing their safety and suitability, the various member states have interpreted the absence of rules in different ways. Some countries, such as Belgium, chose in the absence of regulation on the matter to create their own, while Italy interpreted the lack of regulation as an absence of authorisation and therefore banned the administration or commercialisation of insects for food use altogether.

We asked Andrea Mascaretti, president of the Centre for Sustainable Development, to explore this topic further for us.

How does the approval procedure for novel foods work?
Anyone wishing to produce a new food must submit documentation covering all the procedures by which they intend to produce it. For example, how they intend to farm the crickets, what to feed them, how to ensure their welfare, how many hours to keep them exposed to light, how much space to allocate to each one, after how many days to slaughter them, and so on. Once codified, all of this is submitted to the authorities and approved. From 2018 onwards, if a food receives authorisation in France or Belgium, that authorisation will also be valid in other countries — meaning the product will be able to circulate freely throughout Europe. At the beginning of 2018, the first list of authorised food products will also be published: products that until now have not been present on the European market, but which, thanks to the new regulation, will benefit from a much faster authorisation procedure. As with all foods, research into the safety and allergenicity of the products will also need to be carried out before authorisation can be requested.

What role does Italy play in all this?
There are seven billion people on earth, each with their own desires and tastes, and we cannot force everyone to eat the same things — not least because that would cause the planet to collapse. We therefore need to diversify and build a sustainable food culture. Italy has a great responsibility: it is a cultural model when it comes to food. That is to say, what we do here certainly has repercussions over the years. There are two billion people on earth who already eat insects. If we look at these populations as primitives, they will probably gradually want to abandon this dietary habit and start eating something else — a steak, for instance (precisely the kind of food we should instead be giving up or reducing). On the contrary, if we approach edible insects with an open mind, we will be able — through great chefs or through research — to introduce them gradually into eating habits, and they will see growth above all in countries that are already accustomed to consuming them. Besides, no one will ever be forced to eat them. Insects will become a permanent part of the food industry, which does not yet exist, and will therefore contribute to sustainability at a planetary level. That is the great challenge.