The first edition of the Insects as Food and Feed journal has been published by Wageningen Academics in the Netherlands. The international journal covers the latest research on using insects as a valuable proteins source for humans and animals.
One of the articles in this first edition is ‘Insects as food and feed in the Asia Pacific region: current perspectives and future directions’. The journal also gives an overview of the importance of edible insects to local communities and delves into the chemical safety of fly larvae as a source of protein for animal feed.
The use of insect meal is still prohibited in the EU, as stated in the AllAboutFeed whitepaper on insects for feed. Insect producers are lobbying to make the European Commission change the current rules to make it possible to use insect meal in feed for food producing animals. In non EU countries, the rules are often different. In Africa for example, insect meal is used for chicken feed.
Last week, insect meal producer Co-Prot, published the first lab test of their insect meal, intended for animal feed. The sample is only a prototype, and the company states that they are working on improving processing techniques, to reduce fat and moister levels, for example.