Food Developers Using Edible Insects As An Ingredient
Prospective occupations will continue to change as a result of new technology and people’s perception and awareness. In that sense, food developers using edible insects as ingredients is quickly arising.
Meat consumption around the world is increasing steadily and environmental problems have been growing seriously. In the process of breeding the livestock, methane gas is generated excessively and greenbelt such as grassland have decreased. As an alternative, ‘edible insect’ is the answer. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, edible insects are almost 77% higher in protein than beef and other meats while it only takes ⅙ of the feed to produce the same amount of the protein. In addition, it produces fewer greenhouse gas.
In the last 10 years, the edible insect food market has risen almost two times. The edible insect food developers have produced new products to diversify the market. In the past, the health food products were mostly in the form of powder, but currently, daily products such as cereal and pasta have been produced. In particular, the pet food product market has increased notably.
However, the biggest problem to the edible insect food developers is the people’s reluctance to “eating insects.” Their issue from past to present has always been to change people’s perception of edible insects. According to KOTRA, it is estimated that people eating edible insects are 2.5 billion around the world. However, there is still much reluctance to eat edible insects in Europe and the Western world. This means that suitable products need to be developed to fit the cultural area. To become a food developer of edible insects, it is important to be able to solve this reluctance among people more than obtaining a school major, license, or certificate. In addition, there aren’t any major edible insect food corporations or companies compared to regular food product companies not large in size. The industry predicts that the growth of the market is clearly obvious but the people in the industry advise that “you must consider the long hours of research until you take it as your profession and make some achievement.”
By Sangwook Alex Ahn
