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12 Eur. Food & Feed L. Rev. 22 (2017)
Insects as Food and Feed: Laws of the European Union, United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and China

handle is hein.journals/effl2017 and id is 28 raw text is: 


22   | Insects as Food and Feed


Insects as Food and Feed: Laws of the

European Union, United States, Canada,

Mexico, Australia, and China

       Anu  Lahteenmaki-Uutela,  Nicole Grmelovd,  Louise HInault-Ethier, Marie-HIldne
       Deschamps,   Grant W  Vandenberg,  Ai Zhao,  Yumei  Zhang, Baoru  Yang and  Vivek Nemane*

       Legal rules on the use of insects as feed and food vary across the world. Precise rules on safety,
       marketing, and  animal welfare are largely missing. In the EU, United States and Canada, in-
       sects are novel and legally treated as such. In Mexico, Australia, and China, many species of in-
       sects have a long tradition of food and/or feed use. We believe recognizing the history of safe
       use in other countries is fair risk management in insect regulation. Harmonized standards on
       safety, marketing, and animal welfare would facilitate sustainable growth of the insect business.


1. Introduction

Insects are interesting as food and feed ingredients
for reasons of resource efficiency, circular economy
and climate change.1,2 Further reasons for commer
cial interest include their nutrition content and the
mere  possibility to add variety to diets. Specific laws
on the food and feed use of insects are largely miss-
ing. Existing laws  vary greatly across the world,
which  hinders innovation  and trade. In the follow-
ing chapters, the applicable rules of the European
Union  (EU), North America  (Unites States, Canada,
and Mexico), Australia, and China are described.


11. European Union

1. Introduction

In the EU, there is a lack of guidelines on the mass-
rearing of insects and a lack of rules on their food



   Anu Lihteenmliki-Uutela, Turku School of Economics, Pori unit,
   University of Turku, Finland, anmlaht@utu.fi; Nicole Grmelovi,
   University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic, nicole.grmelo-
   va@vse.cz; Louise H~nault-Ethier, David Suzuki Foundation and
   D~partement des sciences animales, Facult6 des sciences de I'agri-
   culture et de Ialimentation, Universit6 Laval, 2325, rue de l'Univer-
   site, Quebec (Quebec), G1V OA6, Canada, louisehenaultethier@hot-
   mail.com; Marie-H6line Deschamps, Universit6 Laval ibid., marie-
   helene.deschamps.1 @ulaval.ca; Grant W. Vandenberg, Universit6
   Laval ibid., grant.vandenberg@fsaa.ulaval.ca; Ai Zhao, Department
   of Nutrition & Food Hygiene, School of Public Health, Peking
   University, Beijing 100191, P.R. China, xiaochaai@163.com; Yumei
   Zhang, ibid., zhangyumei@bjmu.edu.cn; Baoru Yang, Food Chem-


and feed use. However, there is considerable interest
among  scientists, growers and food producers in de-
veloping the business, and pressure towards EU lev-
el regulation that would widely allow the use of in-
sects as food and feed and define the rules on safety,
marketing, and  animal welfare.


2. Insects  as  Food

Insects are novel foods in the EU. EU rules on food
hygiene  (852/2004),  animal-origin  food  hygiene
(853/2004) and the microbiological criteria on food-
stuffs (2073/2005) do  not currently have any  spe-
cific rules for foods made of insects. In the future,
additions  to these regulations will be  necessary.
Regulation  853/2004 includes the requirements  on
the hygiene of specific types of animal origin-foods.
These  rules are in Annex III, sections I-XIV. A sep-
arate hygiene  rule section will be needed  for in-
sects.



    istry and Food Development, Department of Biochemistry, Universi-
    ty of Turku, Finland, baoru.yang@utu.fi; Vivek Nemane, Australian
    Centre for Agriculture and Law, vnemane@myune.edu.au.
    Luise H~nault-Ethier wishes to thank Recyc-Qudbec for a scholar-
    ship that has allowed the participation in this publication.

1  A. Van Huis, J. Van Itterbeeck, H. Klunder, E. Mertens et al.,
   Edible insects: future prospects for food and feed security. Food
   and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2013, Rome.
2  A. Van Huis, M. Dicke and J.J.A.v. Loon, Insects to feed the
   world, journal of Insects as Food and Feed, 2015, 1: pp.3 et
   sqq., doi:doi:10.3920/J1FF2015.x002.


EFFL 1|2017

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