Reports show underused organic residual flows are a source of valuable nutrients. The food safety risks associated with residual flows such as manure and kitchen waste currently restrict their use as insect substrates. All About Feed spoke to the Project Leader, Elise Hoek-van den Hil of Wageningen Food Safety Research (WFSR), on the safety of potential residual flows as insect substrates.
Wageningen University & Research (WUR) and various partners within the public-private partnership project ‘Safe Insects’ have identified opportunities for rearing insects (black soldier fly (BSF) larvae and yellow mealworm) on 4 “yet to be legalised” residual streams:
- Household kitchen waste
- Former foods from supermarkets that are out of date or can no longer be sold for other reasons
- Residual flow from slaughterhouses
- Chicken manure
To assess whether these residual flows are suitable, the researchers looked at potential feed and food safety risks and potential mitigation strategies. Potential safety risks analysed:
- Microbiological hazards such as bacteria, viruses and parasites
- Chemical hazards such as pesticides, veterinary drugs, and heavy metals
- Environmental pollutants such as packaging residues, PCBs, dioxins and PFAS
Project Leader, Elise Hoek-van den Hil elaborated on the purpose of the ‘safe insects’ project, regarding the suitability of “yet to be legalised” residual streams as insect feed or substrates.
What are the main objectives of the ‘Safe Insects’ project?
“In this project, we focused on the safety and technical feasibility of utilising legally not permitted residual flows as substrates for insect rearing. Organic residual flows such as food waste, slaughter by-products and animal manure are a source of nutrients that insects can convert into high-quality feed or food products suitable for animal and human consumption. We want to make use of underused residual flows to ensure the production of sustainable and safe insect-based feed and food products. In addition, in the case of live insects, their safety can only be assured by using safe substrates, since post-processing is not possible. Ultimately, we want to enforce and substantiate the legal changes needed in EU legislation for the adoption of these residual flows in insect farming. The underlying goal is to add as much value as possible to a wide range of organic residual flows in the food chain by 2030. This is why in our department we develop tools to predict and prioritise food safety hazards in the current and changing circular food system.”
Which industry is the ‘Safe Insects’ project targeting?
“These residual flows are equally important for the animal feed industry and the food industry as insects can be used in feed and food products. Overall, the project aims to promote a more sustainable and circular agricultural system.”
Why is the use of residual flows important as insect feed?
“The insect industry has a circularity potential and offers viable solutions to reduce food waste, while reducing insect producers’ input costs to a significant extent. Instead of destroying residual flows, these can be used to rear insects. The residual flows serve as a feed for the larvae of insects. Compared to other livestock species, insects can convert low-grade bio-waste into high-quality protein and fat-rich biomass. Thus, insects are an interesting alternative source of sustainable protein and fat for animal feed and can also be used in food products.”
Figure 1 – Main conclusions on food safety and mitigation for possible safe insect rearing on these 4 residual streams.
“EU legislation does not yet allow insect rearing on the type of residual streams we have tested in our project. However, our research shows that the 4 residual flows can be suitable substrates or feed for insects, provided certain safety measures are adhered to (see Figure 1). An exception is manure from animals that have been treated with veterinary drugs; this should not be used. On safety measures, an important condition, for example, is the implementation of HACCP measures or risk inventory throughout the entire process of insect rearing, from procurement to commercialisation. On the other hand, pre-treatment processing and tracking and tracing of the residual streams can be used as a risk mitigation measure. To ensure the final safety of the insect product, bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) and processing factors (PFs) should be used to determine maximum residue limits (MRLs) for chemical hazards in residual streams.
As researchers, we hope to help policymakers with possible European legislative changes so that the production of insects on these types of residual flows becomes possible. More elaborate results of our project are published in a policy brief entitled ‘Safe insect rearing on yet to be legalised residual streams’. The detailed information of our research will also be published in scientific peer-reviewed journals.”
Do you have plans for a follow-up project?
Our ‘Safe Insects’ project has shown that residual streams have a good potential to be used in future insect-rearing systems to produce safe and sustainable insect proteins. However, to substantiate this, we will start a new project ‘Safe Insect 2.0’ in which we aim to answer any additional food safety questions, which will help to show the potential of safe circular insect production.”
