ARTICLE FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE July 2023 67 Denmark [11]. By the middle of the decade, most of the demand for insect meals would lie in the pet food sector, followed by aquaculture. According to forecasts, the next relevant market for insects as feed operators, in terms of quantities, will be the poultry and pig markets. The growth of insect farming largely depends on the inputs available. Notably, around 30% of the food for human consumption is lost or wasted each year and could be used as insect substrates. Specific examples of such products are foodstuffs containing meat and fish or catering waste that could be safely bio-converted by insects into protein. The approval of such substrates in insect farming companies producing insects for the feed markets would play a key role in accelerating the sector's growth. Despite the growth of this sector, particularly in Europe and the United States, agri-food supply chains face several challenges in overcoming political, legal, economic, social, and technological barriers [4]. References 1. Lange, K.W.; Nakamura, Y. Edible insects as future food: chances and challenges. Journal of future foods 2021, 1, 38-46. 2. Ros-Baró, M.; Casas-Agustench, P.; Díaz-Rizzolo, D.A.; Batlle-Bayer, L.; Adrià-Acosta, F.; Aguilar-Martínez, A.; Medina, F.-X.; Pujolà, M.; Bach-Faig, A. Edible Insect Consumption for Human and Planetary Health: A Systematic Review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2022, 19, 11653. 3. Kee, P.E.; Cheng, Y.-S.; Chang, J.-S.; Yim, H.S.; Tan, J.C.Y.; Lam, S.S.; Lan, J.C.-W.; Ng, H.S.; Khoo, K.S. Insect biorefinery: A circular economy concept for biowaste conversion to value-added products. Environmental research 2023, 221, 115284. 4. Madau, F.A.; Arru, B.; Furesi, R.; Pulina, P. Insect farming for feed and food production from a circular business model perspective. Sustainability 2020, 12, 5418. 5. Rumpold, B.A.; Schlüter, O.K. Potential and challenges of insects as an innovative source for food and feed production. Innovative Food Science & Emerging Technologies 2013, 17, 1-11. 6. Ritchie, H. How much of the world’s land would we need in order to feed the global population with the average diet of a given country? Available online: https://ourworldindata.org/agricultural-land-by-global-diets (accessed on June 2023). 7. Smetana, S.; Spykman, R.; Heinz, V. Environmental aspects of insect mass production. Journal of Insects as Food and Feed 2021, 7, 553-571. 8. Vinci, G.; Prencipe, S.A.; Masiello, L.; Zaki, M.G. The Application of Life Cycle Assessment to Evaluate the Environmental Impacts of Edible Insects as a Protein Source. Earth 2022, 3, 925-938. 9. Alexander, P.; Brown, C.; Arneth, A.; Dias, C.; Finnigan, J.; Moran, D.; Rounsevell, M.D. Could consumption of insects, cultured meat or imitation meat reduce global agricultural land use? Global Food Security 2017, 15, 22-32. 10. Salter, A.M. Insect protein: a sustainable and healthy alternative to animal protein? The Journal of Nutrition 2019, 149, 545-546. 11. Mancini, S.; Sogari, G.; Espinosa Diaz, S.; Menozzi, D.; Paci, G.; Moruzzo, R. Exploring the future of edible insects in Europe. Foods 2022, 11, 455. About José C. Soares José C. Soares is currently the scientific coordinator at The Tomorrow Company (TTC). He joined TTC last year. Today, in this role, José is responsible for leading research and development programs to deepen the knowledge of insect products. Before joining TTC, José had nearly 20 years of experience working on various research projects at an academic level in the agri-food and healthcare sectors. José holds a master’s degree in biology from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto, followed by a Ph.D. in Biotechnology from the Catholic University.
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