Eetbare insecten: een uitstekende maar onderschatte voedselbron in de tropen

Havensymposium 2018 “Tropen aan de Maas” (30 Nov. 2018)

Prof. Dr Ir Arnold van Huis Grasshopper control Sahel

1982-1985 Recorded edible species (2100 spp.)

Number of insect species

World : 1 million Harmful: 5000 (0.5%) Edible : >2000

Jongema, 2017 World Palm weevils (Rhynchophorus spp.)

▪ Asia - R. ferrugineus ▪ S. America - R. palmarum ▪ Africa - R. phoenicis Termites

▪ Reproductive forms emerging after first rains following dry season ▪ Soldiers pounded into a cake Africa Locust plagues Desert locust

Migratory locust Mopane caterpillar

Annually - 10 billion caterpillars - US$ 85 million

Picture: Kenichi Nonaka Crude protein 62%

Clouds of lake flies in Lake Malawi: Chironomidae, Chaoboridae Latin America Grasshopper Mexico (Chapulines)

Sphenarium purpurascens Pest of maize and beans ( or food)

Source: Cerritos and Cano-Santana 2008) Mexican caviar (eggs true bugs): ahuauhtle

▪ Eggs (0.5–1 mm) (Corisella, Corixa en Notonecta spp) semi-cultivated by offering places for egg deposition ▪ Bundles twigs, grass or reed at bottom lake ▪ Eggs harvested by shaking bundles ▪ Harvest diminishes – water pollution

Preparing egg deposition places Asia Weaver ants WEAVER ANTS Giant water bug

(Lethocerus spp.) Heteroptera: Belostomatidae Laos ants (Camponotus inflatus) in Australia

Honey pots: abdomen ant

Workers fill honey pots

Honey collected by aboriginals eaten by aboriginals

Bogong (Agrotis infusa)

Witchetty grub (Hepialidae or Cerambycidae) Scorpion China Tarantulas, Cambodia Why are insects eaten in tropical countries ?

▪ Availability during year ▪ Harvesting easy (clumped occurrence) ▪ Larger (temperature dependent) ▪ People more contact with nature ▪ In western world negative attitude towards insects Disadvantages harvesting from nature

▪ Not continuous and unpredictable ● Seasonality ● Population fluctuations Mopane caterpillar ● Preservation difficult ▪ Habitats endangered – declining populations ● Overexploitation ● Habitat change ● Pollution ▪ Food safety difficult to ensure

Palm weevil Why alternative protein sources ?

▪ Land area not enough in 2050 ● Increase demand meat: 76% ● Area livestock now: 80% ▪ Livestock globally emits ● Greenhouse gases: 8-18% ● Ammonia: 59-71% ▪ Water for 1 kg beef: 20.000-40.000 liters

▪ Others problems: Deforestation, soil erosion, desertification, loss of plant biodiversity, public health, and water pollution

Dietary solutions needed: global challenge and opportunity Environmental advantages insects

Global warming potential (CO -eq) ▪ Less greenhouse gas 2 emissions 88

▪ Less ammonia 4 ▪ Land area needed much less ▪ Efficient feed conversion ratio 3 27 ▪ Can turn low value organic side streams into protein (even manure) 19 2

14*1 Nutrition edible insects

▪ Large variation ▪ Protein (DM): 40-60% ▪ Essential amino acids (~ beef, soy) ▪ Fat content (DM): 10-30% (PUFAs) ▪ Nutrient value score edible insect species similar to conventional meat (Payne, 2015) ▪ Iron and Zinc content high

Bukkens, 1997; Finke and Oonincx, 2014; Nowak et al, 2014; Payne et al, 2015; Rumpold and Schlüter, 2013 Caterpillar cereal to prevent stunting and anaemia in Democratic Republic of Congo

World population at risk (Gibson, 2015; McLean et al, 2009): - Iron (25%) – pregnant women & pre-school children, in particular in Africa (>50%) - Zinc (17%) ▪ Objective: assess efficacy of caterpillar cereal ▪ Design: 175 infants (6-18 months) ▪ Conclusions: ● Stunting not reduced ● HB concentrations higher ● Fewer infants anaemic

Bauserman et al, 2015 Health effects of in humans

▪ Not synthesized by humans and animals ▪ Therefore targeted for recognition by immune system - inducing cytokine production, recruiting leukocytes, and activating macrophages ▪ Chitinases

● In human digestive fluid (Janiak et al, 2017; Paoletti et al, 2007) ● Combats bacterial infections and inflammatory diseases (Di Rosa et al, 2016)

Roos and Van Huis, 2017 Anti-microbial peptides

Angiotensin-converting Antifungal enzyme (ACE) - cardiovascular diseases

Antibacterial ACE-inhibitory

Bioactive peptides from edible insect proteins

Antidiabetic Anti-oxidant

Anti- inflammatory

Roos and van Huis (2017); Zielińska et al, 2018 Farming of insects in Thailand: 20.000 farms producing 7.500 tonnes Proti-Farm (Lesser mealworm)

FULL AUTOMATION & MECHANISATION

Factory in the Netherlands producing for human consumption Consumer studies

▪ How to convince western consumer? ▪ Strategies proposed: experimental tasting, providing info, processing (burgers), sky shrimps, role models, cookbooks, children ▪ Gastronomy Book

EDIBLE INSECTS: Future prospects for food and feed security

(van Huis et al, 2013)

To download: FAO website

Launched in Rome: 2013

Downloaded: 7 million times

Translated: Chinese, Italian, French and Korean FAO/WUR Conference The Netherlands (14-17 May, 2014)

450 participants; 45 countries

2018 (15-18 May): Wuhan, China 2020 (3-6 June): Quebec, Canada Value edible insect market: > 1 billion US$

231 start-up companies worldwide (bugburger.se; 28 -08-2018) 2018 2023

Meticulous research, 2018 Hits Web of Science using “edible insects”

140

120 In 2017/2018 similar number of Checked 100 94 27 Nov. articles than during 2005-2016 90 2018

80

60 55

40 26 20 22 20 8 8 10 4 6 1 3 0 0 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 2018 Insects as food and feed: a new agricultural sector

▪ Why? ● Dietary changes needed ● Insects a sustainable alternative ▪ Nutritional value adequate ▪ Legislation major bottleneck ▪ Consumers - product development ▪ Huge interest worldwide ▪ Join forces (private, public and academic) Insects as food and feed have a bright future !!!