A government-funded research center is working to make eating insects more palatable to the public.
The National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre (NAPIC) is looking for ways to reduce bureaucratic hurdles and bring insects and other meat alternatives to supermarket shelves.
Minced meat made from crickets reared in Cambridge and pet food made from egg-raised chickens are two of the products recently launched by British companies that are hoped to soon become more widely available.
This step comes against the backdrop of the environmental impact of livestock farming, which is responsible for around 80 percent of greenhouse gas emissions from food production worldwide.
There is a push for alternative proteins
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Professor Guy Poppy of UK Research and Innovation, a government non-governmental organisation that funds the centre, said: “Why is it culturally possible that people in the UK like to eat prawns but not insects? It would be useful to understand why this is the case.”
“Then it’s about understanding what processing steps are needed to turn the insect into something people want to eat.
“Does it have to be ground into a powder and then turned into a protein-based biscuit, perhaps with reduced fat and sugar, or is there an intermediate product where the insect is turned into something that looks like a burger?”
Professor Anwesha Sarkar of the University of Leeds, where the research centre will be based, said: “We want to make alternative proteins mainstream for a more sustainable planet.”
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The centre will be located at the University of Leeds
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The United Nations considers insects a sustainable source of protein to feed a world population that is estimated to grow to 9.7 billion people by 2050. In addition, global food security challenges due to extreme weather and conflict have increased interest in the high-quality, low-cost food that insects provide.
However, the growing alternative meat industry has sparked a backlash from farmers who argue that it is damaging the agricultural sector.
The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, a leading industry body, recently launched its own campaign, ‘Let’s Eat Balanced’, to encourage people to eat beef, lamb and dairy products.
In Italy, the government has banned lab-grown meat, and in France it has been decided that plant-based foods cannot bear the same name as the meat from which they come.
Professor Louise Dye of the Institute for Sustainable Food (ISF) at the University of Sheffield said: “We know that consumers will not buy food that they do not like or that is more expensive than their conventional alternatives.”
“We also need to be sure that any new alternative proteins are safe and healthy.”
