Resource crisis has become an unavoidable and serious topic in the 21st century. The report, jointly released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Food Program, shows that the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to lead to a significant increase in global hunger in 2020, with an additional 130 million hungry people this year and 690 million people in the world going hungry. Under the continuous squeeze of resource crisis, insects, a controversial group, are gradually accepted by more people, and they are moving from the "private domain" to the public.

Multipurpose raw material

According to a report by the United Nations Agriculture Organization, there are more than 1,900 species of edible insects on Earth, and hundreds of them have become part of the diet of many countries. Our country also had a long history on the consumption of insects, as early as in Zhou Li Tianguan in the Western Zhou Dynasty, it was recorded that "Ant Ant 醘 served the egg for the Son of Heaven." ; The Tang Dynasty Liu Xun "Ling table different record" recorded :" Jiaoguang river Tong between the chief to collect more ant eggs, Tao ze make net, brine thought sauce. Or cloud its taste like meat sauce, not the government relatives and friends can not get." It can be seen that ants, an insect with strong reproductive capacity and abundant resources, have been put on the "table" a long time ago.

As the value of insects continues to be revealed, the status of many insects is changing from "pests" to "beneficial insects", such as cicadas, mealworms, crickets and even cockroaches, are included in the diet of people in the future. Due to the limitation of people's traditional concepts, the vast majority of people do not have a high acceptance of insects, so they are not satisfied in the development of insect food resources, some have become victims of policies, and some have become pawns of capital. But in the feeding industry, insects have waded a path, natural, nutritious properties have made them a considerable alternative to fish meal raw materials.

Mealworm is one of the most popular insect resources in recent years. The study pointed out that the yellow mealworm is rich in protein, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients, of which the protein content is higher than that of eggs, beef, lamb and other conventional animal foods. At the same time, yellow mealworm contains rich omega-3 series unsaturated fatty acids and a variety of metabolic active ingredients, is a high-quality nutritional raw material, has been widely used in the feed industry.

Contribute to sustainability

Greenhouse effect is one of the important issues affecting the sustainable development of human beings, and everyone can actually feel the impact, and animal husbandry is one of the important factors leading to the intensification of greenhouse effect. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), livestock produce nearly a fifth of the world's greenhouse gases. The current advocacy of vegetarianism is not only about personal health, but also about the development of the whole society. In terms of greenhouse gas mitigation, insect resources have unique advantages. The study pointed out that the production of 1kg of yellow mealworms needs to produce 2.7 kg of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, while the production of 1kg of beef is equivalent to 300 kg of carbon dioxide emissions, this gap is mainly because the yellow mealworms rarely produce powerful greenhouse gases such as methane.

Compared with the "warm water boiling frog" way of greenhouse gases, the impact of plastic pollution on the human body is more intuitive, and white pollution can be seen everywhere. According to one study, more than 40 billion pieces of microplastics were washed into the sea by a river near Manchester, UK, due to flooding in 2015-2016. Scientific American reported on a study published by East China Normal University that all salt samples taken from China contained "microplastics," especially sea salt, with more than 550 pieces per kilogram. With a typical amount of salt, a person could eat more than 1,000 pieces of "microplastic" a year. In July 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission and nine other departments jointly issued the Notice on Solid Promotion of Plastic Pollution Control, requiring that from January 1, 2021, shopping malls, supermarkets, pharmacies, bookstores and other places, food packaging and takeout services and various exhibition activities in the urban built up areas of municipalities directly under the Central Government, provincial capitals and planned cities. Non-biodegradable plastic shopping bags are prohibited, but roll bags, storage bags and garbage bags are not prohibited.

However, the situation of white pollution is still very serious, and yellow mealworms, which seem to be not linked to white pollution, are placed high hopes on the elimination of plastic. In 2015, researchers at Stanford University and Beihang University in the United States observed in the laboratory that 100 yellow mealworms can swallow 34 to 39 milligrams of polystyrene plastic per day, and about 48 percent of this plastic is degraded into carbon dioxide within 24 hours under the action of the intestinal microbes of yellow mealworms.

Edible process is difficult

Europe and the United States are the main consumption areas of insect food, although the European Union has not fully passed the legislation of insect food, but the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Finland and other countries have a large number of insect food listed. In 2014, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety of the Republic of Korea used mealworms as food ingredients after a series of process operations such as cleaning, sterilization, freeze-drying, etc. In 2016, it issued an administrative notice of partial amendments to the Codex Alimentarius, which used to be used as tentative food raw materials, mealworm larvae and two-spected critically as raw materials for all processed foods. And all businesses can use it as a food raw material. In addition, Australia also has a special fondness for yellow mealworms, and there are many delicious foods made of yellow mealworms.

Although our country does not reject the consumption of insect food, but to rise to the category of industrial production of raw materials is more cautious, if there is no clear identity, it can not be used as food raw materials. For example, silkworm chrysalis, silkworm chrysalis was initially identified as a new resource food, and in 1998 it was re-classified as an ordinary food, such as silkworm chrysalis this well-known "food" must be identified, and the situation of other insects can be imagined. For another example, after the Health and Family Planning Commission accepted the application of new food raw materials for the Yunshi borer in 2014, there is still no further information. The yellow mealworm this "imported products" to be eaten in the country, it is more "stretched" in all aspects, feeding or export as raw materials will still be the main theme of the future.