When Italian authorities discovered that Roberto Flore was planning to serve bee larvae on toast at an event in Milan, they shut it down.
But only days before, in Brussels, the Sardinian chef had fed members of the European Parliament his signature lunch without a hitch.
Flore — the head of culinary research at the Nordic Food Lab, which was set up by the head chef at Copenhagen’s world-renowned restaurant Noma — had fallen victim to the tangle of differing national regulations that governed bug eating in Europe until the beginning of this year.
The entomophages of this world don’t have to worry about the bureaucrats in various European capitals anymore.
Three years after Flore’s attempt to feed bees to the Milanese, a new set of EU rules that should harmonize standards came into force on January 1. For businesses ranging from cricket farms to manufacturers of bug burgers, it is a big moment. They reckon that common rules across the bloc should enable them to scale up and allow the nascent creepy crawly industry to burst from its chrysalis.The new regulation now explicitly covers whole insects and ensures that the European Commission will handle insect-food applications directly, with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) advising.
Enthusiasts and environmentalists have long touted insect agriculture as a highly efficient alternative protein source to polluting cattle and pigs. However — even more than the “yuck factor” among consumers — the European insect industry’s biggest obstacle has always been the lack of clear regulation.
Under previous rules on new types of food (the so-called novel foods regulation, which governs products mostly unknown to Europeans before 1997, such as quinoa), it was unclear whether producers could market whole insects for human consumption, rather than just insect wings, for example. National governments also had to green-light food made from insects, splintering regulations across the bloc as Italy outlawed insect burgers while the Netherlands didn’t.
“Before, it was really confusing,” Flore said. “It’s definitely something that’s creating a clear understanding of whether it’s possible to legally serve insects or not,” he added, referring to the new rules.
Christophe Derrien, the secretary-general of the International Platform of Insects for Food and Feed (IPIFF), a lobby, agreed the new rules will help. “This will definitely boost the sector,” he said, adding that Europe has a number of companies poised to expand production as a result of the changes.
The IPIFF argues that bugs can on average convert 2 kilograms of feed into 1 kilo of body mass — whereas cows require 8 kilos of feed to do the same thing. Insects also emit fewer greenhouses gases or ammonia than cattle or pigs and are highly nutritious to boot, marking them out as a suitable candidate for feeding a world population destined to reach 9 billion by 2050, according to the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization.
Heidi de Bruin, chief executive of Dutch insect producer Proti-Farm, said that consumers are keen on bug food for health and environmental reasons. “It’s the nutritional benefits: low sugar, low salt and the sustainability factor,” she said. “Insects have natural vitamins and minerals, they are rich in calcium, high in iron, antibiotic free, chemical free,” she added.
De Bruin said that her company has been in business since the 1980s. It mostly reared insects for animal feed, but she said the industry is changing quickly toward human nutrition. “We see a drastic move now,” she said.
Still, Europe’s regulatory regime will likely continue to frustrate Europe’s insect sellers. Many businesses are complaining about the high cost and difficulty of getting products approved under the new regulation, according to De Bruin.
She added, however, that Proti-Farm had already submitted to EFSA an application to market the buffalo mealworm and had invested in a “fully automated and mechanized” new factory in order to ramp up production. “One insect is already a lot of investment,” she said.
In some instances, the new rules might even allow previously prohibited culinary traditions to emerge from the shadows.
The Sardinian and Corsican cheese casu marzu is a case in point. This variety of pecorino contains thousands of live maggots that cheesemakers put into it in order to break down fats and create a soft texture. Its legal status has been murky for years, however.
“We use it and we really like it,” said Flore, who comes from Sardinia and said that he hoped casu marzu would exit legal limbo. “When you have dinners or parties with your friends, everybody is there, dipping in with the knife and spreading.”
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