Anu Lähteenmäki-Uutela, Nicole Grmelová, Louise Hénault-Ethier, Marie-Hélène Deschamps, Grant W. Vandenberg, Ai Zhao, Yumei Zhang, Baoru Yang, Vivek Nemane

European Food and Feed Law Review, Volume 12 (2017), Issue 1, Page 22 - 36

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, Nicole Grmelová

European Food and Feed Law Review, Volume 11 (2016), Issue 1, Page 2 - 8

Insects are a promising part of future food chains. European law needs to include the safety rules and marketing rules of insect-based food and feed. The reformed Novel Food Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 2015/2283), including its transition period, should treat entrepreneurs equally. Also, animal welfare needs to be regulated. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the EU legislation applicable to farming and marketing insects as food and feed and to discuss its possible shortcomings. The authors believe that while the new Novel Food Regulation contributes to more clarity of the legal regulation of edible insects, it still leaves a number of loopholes unanswered.