
Millions of people, in many parts of the world, eat insects on a daily basis. For various cultural and regulatory reasons, such practice has not been present so far in Europe. However, this has changed just last month, as an insect has been approved for human consumption in the European Union for the first time.
Dried yellow mealworm – which refers to the larvae of the beetle Tenebrio molitor – is the first insect to enter the European market as a food product. The approval of the yellow mealworm for human consumption was granted on May 3rd by the standing committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed that brings together representatives of all EU countries and is chaired by a Commission representative.
This decision followed the positive risk assessment of yellow mealworm that the EU food safety agency (EFSA) gave in January. The EFSA declared that the insect was safe to use under the proposed conditions, but warned about possible allergenic concerns for some people.
Mealworms are rich in fat, fibre and protein. According to the Commission, they are intended to be used as a whole, dried insect in the form of snacks or as a food ingredient (i.e. powder that can be used for making biscuits, smoothies or pasta products).
The European agricultural strategy ‘From Farm to Fork’ sees insects as a promising alternative source of protein which could have an integral role in improving the sustainability of our food system.
CoRoSect project will bring new insight to automated insect farming by introducing a novel digitalized integrated robotic solution designed to support all phases of the insects’ lifecycle inside insect farms. The innovative infrastructure will be implemented, tested and validated in three of the most commonly occurring species, namely Tenebrio molitor (Mealworm), Hermetia illucens (Black Soldier) and Acheta Domesticus (Crickets).
Source: Euractiv, The Brussels Times, European Commission
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CoRoSect is developing a novel Cognitive Robotic System for Digitalized and Networked (Automated) Insect Farms. We bring leading-edge robotics, AI, and some of the best experts in our industry - to help embrace automation and wave goodbye to the monotonous and mundane tasks.
Dr. Rico Möckel
Maastricht University
Department of Data Science and Knowledge Engineering (DKE)
Paul Henri Spaaklaan 1
6229EN Maastricht
The Netherlands
Tel.: +31433883482
rico.mockel@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Prof. Dr. Mladen Radišić
CEO Foodscale Hub
Narodnog fronta 73
21000 Novi Sad
Serbia
Tel.: (+381) 21 300 8023
mladen@foodscalehub.com
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101016953.