Food: Coldiretti, 54% Italians bowls ok insects on the plate

Rome, May 4 (beraking latest news Salute) – The majority of Italians (54%) consider insects to be foreign to the national food culture and would never bring to the table the thermally dried yellow flour larva (Tenebrio molitor), whole or in the form of flour, for human consumption . This is what emerges from a Coldiretti / Ixe ‘analysis in reference to the authorization of the EU Member States for the marketing as food of the dried yellow grubs of the miller blackhead, better known as flour moth, after scientific evaluation by EFSA.

This is the first green light in the Union for the human food use of a whole insect, pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 on Novel Foods. The authorization covers the possibility of using the whole dried insect in the form of snacks and as a flour ingredient in a number of food products. According to experts, its consumption is not disadvantageous from a nutritional point of view and does not pose food safety problems even if, underlines Coldiretti, the Novel Food based on Tenibrio molitor can induce sensitization and allergic reactions to insect proteins and can cause reactions in people with an allergy to shellfish and dust mites. However, 54% of Italians who are against insects at the table do not like the news, while 24% are indifferent, in favor of 16% and 6% do not respond, according to the Coldiretti / Ixe ‘survey.

The possibility of marketing insects for food purposes is made possible in Europe by the entry into force of the EU regulation on ‘novel food’ on January 1st 2018, which allows for the recognition of whole insects both as new foods and as traditional products from third countries. Around the world – notes Coldiretti – you can find many examples ranging from artisanal egg pasta to crickets to oven-roasted Chinese millipedes to make them crunchy and then smoked, from roasted tarantulas without preservatives or dyes from Laos to giant worms of flour from Thailand. But there are also – continues Coldiretti – the American-style silkworm, the real ‘star’ of edible insects, the butterflies of the palms from French Guiana, fried and seasoned, the water bugs from Thailand to the ‘aperinsects’ flour worms flavored with paprika, curry and sea salt ‘made in Belgium’, perhaps to be swallowed with a sip of vodka with silkworms.