A survey carried out this summer indicated that more than one in three people in Slovakia believed the EU was endangering public health by ordering insect protein to be added to food without consumers knowing.
It was one of a number of conspiracy theories looked into by an Ipsos study for the Central European Digital Media Observatory.
The European Commission has tried to debunk the insect protein hoax. But 36% of Slovaks seem to believe Brussels is forcing companies to put insects in food. The percentage was higher among far-right and nationalist voters, who are thought to put more trust in the “alternative facts” from the political parties they follow.
The EU Commission decided last January to allow the sale of crickets and larvae for human consumption in powdered form. But the commission’s Slovak representation said: “It is up to consumers to decide for themselves whether they want to eat insects or not. It is nonsense that it would be added to food secretly”.
According to current EU rules, products with added insect powder must be labelled appropriately, with information about possible reactions for people allergic to crustaceans, molluscs, and dust mites.
In the neighbouring Czech Republic, 30% of citizens were also found to believe in an EU insect food mandate. This is perhaps not surprising, after former Czech prime minister Andrej Babiš spoke of Brussels forcing citizens “to ride bicycles to work and eat bugs for dinner”.
The conspiracy theories have not deterred the commission from its mission to spur transition towards sustainable, healthy and inclusive food systems.
This includes support for alternative proteins such as insects, microalgae, and the cells of microorganisms like bacteria and yeast (single-cell proteins).
Currently, the world’s appetite for protein is satisfied mainly by animal farming for meat and dairy. But the EU says alternative proteins in human diets can improve nutrition, and ease environmental pressure caused by worldwide breeding of livestock for protein.
The EU says livestock farming threatens to worsen climate change, hasten biodiversity loss, and strain water supplies, because it requires vast tracts of land, consumes large amounts of water, and is a major greenhouse-gas emitter.
In contrast, spirulina protein powder made from microalgae uses less than 1% of the land, water and emissions required to produce beef. Insects had an even smaller land use, of 1,000 times lower than that of red meat, according to the EU-funded NextGenProteins research project.
In addition to their smaller environmental footprint, non-traditional proteins could also help ensure quality food supplies for a growing global population.
However, the current worldwide market for alternative proteins is estimated at only about €13bn, compared to the 100 times larger €1.3 trillion market for animal-based proteins.
Insects are traditionally included in many diets worldwide. Mexicans put grasshoppers in tacos, the Japanese cook them in soy sauce. Silkworms are part of the diet for many in Southeast Asia and China.
The ancient Greeks and Romans ate insects. But they are a hard sell in modern Europe.
The EU is funding many research projects on how to get people to embrace protein sources such as insects, instead of meat and dairy.
For example, Dr Janina Seubert, a cognitive neuroscientist at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, is researching the role of smell in shaping public preferences towards foods, and how to unlock people’s willingness to abandon familiar foods and embrace new ones, such as insects.
Her €1.5m project over five years to 2026 examines how flavour preferences are formed in the human brain.
She has found people like aromas traditionally paired with a rewarding taste, for example sweetness, which indicates the presence of carbohydrates.
People compare alternative food ingredients with familiar, existing products, and initially find the unfamiliar ones unpleasant.
For example, people might at first regard oat milk as a variant of milk that has a “wrong smell”, before they grow to like the alternative, the more often they drink it.
Her research indicates people may be more sensitive to new smells when hungry.
She will assess the consumer potential of a protein derived from mealworm, the larva of the meal beetle, packed with proteins, which can be eaten cooked, raw or as a powder.
Currently, it is mainly used as food for birds and other animals that eat insects and worms.
The EU contributed nearly €8m to the NextGenProteins project co-ordinated by the Matis OHF food and biotech public commercial food research company in Iceland.
This project recently ended, after four years examining food powders from insects, microalgae, and single-cell proteins for both human food and animal feed. It was found that all three have high protein content, some minerals and vitamins, and can be added as an extra or replacing more traditional ingredients in food products.
In the project, black soldier flies were transformed into animal feed and pet food, and crickets (grasshoppers) were turned into food for humans.
Single-cell proteins were created from wood residues and leftovers from forestry, first broken down with chemicals or enzymes, and then fermented with yeast to create another protein-rich powder that can be used directly in food and feed.
“In all cases, the alternative proteins are very sustainable compared to most traditional food products that we consume,” said research group leader Birgir Örn Smárason.
“We firmly believe that, by educating consumers, we can make a big step forward towards more sustainable diets and food systems,” Smárason said.
His team sought feedback through taste events, discussions and other exchanges. One online survey covered 6,600 people in Finland, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Poland, Sweden and the UK. The team discovered many people were already very positive towards alternative proteins. More than 50% of Europeans were in favour of microalgae, support for single-cell proteins was only slightly lower.
But people surveyed showed a great deal more reluctance about eating insects, because of a perception that they are generally repulsive.
Smárason noticed colour plays a big role in acceptance of new food products.
The project’s spirulina powder made from microalgae originally had a very intense green colour, which made it hard to integrate into everyday food items. The researchers took out the blue-green pigments (which are now sold as valuable colourants for other food products) to make the protein look more appetising when added to food.
The EU’s investigations of how to make us accept alternative protein may also have to take on powerful politicians.
For example, the Italian government has taken steps to ban insect flour in pizza and pasta production. “We will oppose, by any means and in any place, this madness that would impoverish our agriculture and our culture,” said deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini.
The far-right nationalist party Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) has made progress on the back of policies which include banning insects in food.
The EU must also fight off conspiracy theorists like Eric Bolling, a TV host on the far-right US news channel Newsmax, who used his show to speculate that Bill Gates, George Soros, and the “liberal world order” are eager to encourage insect-eating, while stockpiling more traditional foods for themselves.
“Eating insects is repulsive and un-American,” said popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson in 2019.
Earlier this year, Poland’s ruling nationalist party, Law and Justice, falsely alleged the opposition Civic Platform was trying to push citizens into eating worms.
Credit: Source link
