CREA-Center for Zootechnics and Aquaculture Research
Considerations about the use of insect meal to replace fish or soy meal in poultry feed, conclusions from the INSECTA project
Population growth, estimated in 9 billions of people in the 2050 and the increased overall levels of well-being have raised the demand for foods with high nutritional value. FAO, in a projection between the years 2000-2030, expects an increase of 72% of the global demand for meat and the 50% of farmed fish (from 2010 al 2030) which would lead to a deficit of 60 millions of tons of protein feed to meet the demand.
Also in the EU, the dependence on imports of protein feed products creates economic uncertainties throughout the sector and in the latter 5 years the price of soybeans (the 70% of which it is imported) increased by 100% and that of fish meal (65% of consumption are imported) 4 times.
Insects could be a sustainable source for reducing the needs of vegetable and non-plant protein foods and therefore imports and their breeding for animal feed can be integrated with agricultural production.
Despite the current technical difficulties and regulatory limitations, it can be said that both the scientific and the productive world are ready for the use of insect meal based feed.
Recently, l’International Platform of Insects for Food and Feed (IPIFF), through the voice of its President, expressed confidence in the EU authorization of insect meal for feeding poultry.
With the INSECTA project and later with the TIPIBIO project, intended for organic poultry farming, both financed by MiPAAFT. CREA addressed the issue of the use of insects in food, starting from the examination of the points in favor and the technical and regulatory criticalities. The presentation will focus on nutritional aspects and on the characteristics of rations set up with different insects, as emerged from the above activities.