{"id":416616,"date":"2025-01-20T16:56:24","date_gmt":"2025-01-20T15:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/01\/20\/ue-farina-larve-gialle-novel-food\/"},"modified":"2025-01-20T19:41:55","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T18:41:55","slug":"eu-opens-supermarket-doors-to-larvae-meal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/01\/20\/eu-opens-supermarket-doors-to-larvae-meal\/","title":{"rendered":"EU opens supermarket doors to larvae meal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Europe’s “novel food” revolution continues: after\u00a0recent years’ approval of\u00a0migratory locust meal, lesser mealworms, and house crickets, Brussels is opening the doors of EU supermarkets to whole powdered larvae of Tenebrio molitor<\/em> <\/strong>(the so-called yellow mealworms). Today’s (Jan. 20) green light from the European Commission comes just days after a failed attempt by right-wing groups in the EU Parliament to call into question the addition of yellow grubs to EU novel foods.<\/p>\n

The amendment to the EU implementing regulation (2017\/2470) authorizes the placing on the market of UV-treated whole Tenebrio molitor larvae powder, adding it to the list of novel foods (any food that was not consumed “in a relevant way before May 1997 on the Continent”). The authorization will take effect\u00a0twenty days after publication in the Official Journal of the European Union: from that day and for five years, only the French company Nutri’Earth<\/strong> will be allowed to place the yellow grub meal on the market “unless a subsequent applicant obtains an authorization for such novel food.”<\/p>\n

Nutri’Earth applied to Brussels more than five years ago. In the summer of 2023, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) issued a scientific opinion: the UV-treated Tenebrio molitor whole larvae powder is “safe under the proposed conditions and levels of use.<\/strong>” That is, it can be used in “bread and rolls, cakes, pasta products, processed potato products, cheese and dairy products, and fruit and vegetable compotes intended for the general population.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Last January 15, the European Parliament’s Environment, Public Health and Safety (ENVI) committee rejected by 39 votes against, 32 in favour and 6 abstentions a motion<\/a> submitted by French conservative Laurence Trochu to block the approval of\u00a0yellow grub meal.\u00a0On the sidelines of the vote, Lega MEP and ENVI committee member\u00a0Silvia Sardone<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0had attacked the left, guilty in her view of “putting the interests of multinationals before those of consumers and food safety.”<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, the European Commission itself has markedly accelerated the incorporation of edible insects into European food culture as alternative protein sources. A breakthrough triggered by a simple equation: the increasing demand for food in the face of decreasing agri-food yields<\/strong>. There are over a dozen applications on EFSA’s table for evaluating\u00a0food derived from edible insects. Among them, foods such as black soldier fly meal<\/strong> (Hermetia illucens larvae<\/em>) whole, blanched, and dried, the nest of drones of honey bees<\/strong> (Apis mellifera male pupae<\/em>), the whole powder of house cricket<\/strong> (Acheta domesticus<\/em>), protein-rich flour from fresh larvae of flour moths<\/strong> (Tenebrio molitor<\/em>), protein powders from the\u00a0larvae of the lesser flour worm<\/strong> (Alphitobius diaperinus)\u00a0<\/em>are already at the risk assessment stage. <\/em>The timeframe required for the EFSA experts to formulate their verdict is not known at this time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Green light for marketing of UV-treated whole Tenebrio molitor larvae powder added to EU “novel food” list. Attempt to block a yes vote in the Environment Committee at the EU Parliament fails.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7527,"featured_media":416605,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25705],"tags":[30225,30226,30227],"class_list":["post-416616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-farina-insetti-en","tag-novel-food-en","tag-tenebrio-molitor-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416616"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":416675,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416616\/revisions\/416675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}