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, insects are novel and legally treated as such. In Mexico, Australia, and China, many species of insects 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.
Anu Lähteenmäki-Uutela, Turku School of Economics, Pori unit, University of Turku, Finland, anmlaht@utu.fi; Nicole Grmelová, University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic, nicole.grmelova@vse.cz; Louise Hénault-Ethier, David Suzuki Foundation and Département des sciences animales, Faculté des sciences de l'agriculture et de l'alimentation, Université Laval, 2325, rue de l‘Université, Québec (Québec), G1V 0A6, Canada, louisehenaultethier@hotmail.com; Marie-Hélène Deschamps, Université Laval ibid., marie-helene.deschamps.1@ulaval.ca; Grant W. Vandenberg, Université 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 Chemistry and Food Development, Department of Biochemistry, University of Turku, Finland, baoru.yang@utu.fi; Vivek Nemane, Australian Centre for Agriculture and Law, vnemane@myune.edu.au. Luise Hénault-Ethier wishes to thank Recyc-Québec for a scholarship that has allowed the participation in this publication.
