In the post-pandemic era, people's awareness of health and environmental protection is at an all-time high, and more and more consumers have a deeper understanding of the connection between food choices, health and the environment, and have begun to expand their health concerns from themselves to the whole ecology, exploring the construction of a sustainable dynamic balance between people and the earth.

On the other hand, as the global population grows year by year, the demand for food and protein is also increasing, which also means that it is a huge challenge for food resources, especially meat resources. In order to better solve the problems of the environment and resources, and strive to maintain the balance between man and nature, it is necessary to have a new way of protein supply to reshape the existing global protein supply system and become an important part of the new protein supply system.

In this context, new forms of alternative proteins such as plant proteins and cell fermentation proteins have begun to sweep the market. In the past two years, insect protein, which has a long history in human diet, has once again attracted the attention of the industry, and even attracted a large number of research teams and food manufacturers from all over the world to invest in research and apply it to various fields of food such as baking, snacks, seasonings, nutrition and health care.

The global insect protein market is growing rapidly as consumption continues to escalate. According to Global Market Insights, the global insect food market was valued at USD 143.6 million in 2019 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 45% to reach USD 1,336 million by 2025.

So, what exactly is insect protein? How should food companies grasp the business opportunities of this nearly 10 billion yuan track? At present, what are the players and trends worth paying attention to at home and abroad? In this paper, FDL Digital Food Advocate will analyze the current market application cases of insect protein food, and look forward to its future development prospects and directions.

What is Insect Protein?

As a new type of alternative protein, insect protein mainly refers to the protein extracted from insects (such as crickets, mealworms, silkworm pupae, etc.) from various growth stages of insects, such as eggs, larvae, adults, pupa, moths and other insects.

However, due to the large number of insect species, the protein content and nutritional composition of different insect bodies are also different. According to the data of the Chinese Academy of Forestry on the nutritional composition of more than 100 species of insects, the protein content of different insects is generally between 20% and 70%, and the fat content is between 10% and 50%.

According to the statistics of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), there are nearly 2,000 species of insects available for human consumption in the world, and their protein content and quality are comparable to traditional meat, while the dietary fiber content is higher than that of traditional meat, which is equivalent to that of cereals. Generally speaking, insects are rich in iron, calcium, and B vitamins.

Insect protein can not only meet the human demand for high-quality protein, in traditional agriculture, breeding insects can also save water resources, land resources, reduce energy consumption, thereby effectively reducing the cost of livestock products. Studies have shown that insects have small appetites and grow fast, and only 2 kg of feed is required to produce 2 kg of insect protein, while 20 kg of feed is required to produce the same 2 kg of beef protein.

At the same time, compared with traditional animal protein, farmed insects can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 96%; In addition, insects can absorb and recombinate proteins from food waste, achieving up to 70% protein recovery.

It can be seen that insects can not only save feed and reduce production costs, but also be more environmentally friendly and sustainable as a new type of alternative protein. In the long run, this is expected to reduce pollution, habitat destruction, and misuse of natural resources. Therefore, at a time when carbon emissions caused by the development of traditional animal husbandry have a huge impact on the environment, it is of great significance to choose edible insects as a high-quality alternative protein source.

In recent years, as the scientific community continues to record new and unexplored edible insect populations, more and more countries have included insects as one of the safe and edible foods in promoting the legalization of edible insects, among which Europe and the United States are currently at the forefront of the world.

In June 2021, the European Commission issued Regulation (EU) 2021/8820 approving dried mealworm larvae to be placed on the market as a new resource food, which is the first insect food approved in the EU as a new resource food. In July of the same year, the European Food Safety Authority approved "migratory locusts as freeze-dried and dried food" as one of the items safe for human consumption.

In November 2021, the European Commission issued Regulation (EU) 2021/1975 approving the launch of the East Asian locust in frozen, dried and powdered forms on the market as a new resource food. In February 2022, the European Commission issued Regulation (EU) 2022/18 approving the introduction of frozen, dried and powdered domestic crickets on the market as a new resource food.

In Switzerland, as early as 2017, its Food Safety Law was amended to allow food suppliers to sell larvae such as breadworms, crickets and grasshoppers, but they must be produced through strict regulations, and insect meat can also be imported from abroad; In addition, in South Korea, in October 2021, the local government also included locusts as the 10th edible insect in Korea, the rest including grasshoppers, cicada pupa, mealworms, unicorn fairy larvae, macular black crickets, bee larvae, etc.

In China, at the two sessions this year, Yang Zhongqi, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and chief expert of the Chinese Academy of Forestry, suggested that edible insects should be added to the list of Chinese foods......