Nanyang Technological University: Diving into Singapore insect approval’s impact on the F&B industry
01 Aug 2024 | Nanyang Technological University
The Singapore Food Agency recently approved the use of 16 insects in foods, such as fried insect snacks and protein bars. Professor William Chen, director of NTU’s Food Science and Technology Program, talks to us about the move’s impact on NPD and its potential role in mitigating food security challenges. He also spotlights the role of insect protein fortification in foods to increase consumer acceptance.
Hi, I'm Inha Noreen, journalist at Food Ingredients First.
The Singapore Food Agency recently approved the use of 16 insects as food in the country.
To understand the impact of the significant move on the food industry, we have Professor William Chen with us, who is the director of Singapore's Future Ready Food Safety Hub, as as the director of NTU Food Science and Technology Program in Singapore.
Thank you for joining us today, Dr.
Chen.
Welcome.
Thank you, Yin, Ysa for reaching out and for having me here.
Yeah, welcome.
So, Dr.
Chen, can we start with the basics first?
How do you decide which insects can be eaten and which cannot?
As we know, there are many insects in nature.
They can be categorized into two main classes.
One is edible, the other is not.
And when we talk about edible insects, there are about 1000 species.
And here we are talking about What Singapore Food Agency has approved.
Are those edible insects which are not caught in the wild.
So we're talking about properly farmed, under controlled environment, a proper nutrient, a feedstock.
These are insects.
So these are how we define.
And also more importantly, most of these insects, edible insects that have been approved, have a history of human consumption.
So, therefore, safety risk, risk of food safety is minimal.
OK, great.
And when it comes to consumption of insects, what are the trends you have observed over the years and how have consumer preferences evolved?
If we look at the human history, Edible insects have been part and parcel of our early diet 1000 years ago.
And then we say changing practice, industry development, and urbanization.
Eating insects become not, not a mainstream diet over time.
Then we have all this development of animal farming, and so we have more and more sources for animal protein.
In our diet.
And, and so much so that Eating insect is, is no longer a, a trendy thing.
It's become some, you know, here and there, we know people eat insect, more like out of curiosity, the delicacy like in Japan, but there are other part of it, in other parts of the world, like in Thailand or in South Africa, no, in Africa in general, eating insects is still part and parcel of their diet.
Although this option is not the main, main part of the diet.
As a result, it's an evolving, You know, consumers' habit of eating different source of protein.
They may not be so familiar with, eating insect anymore.
And so gaining consumer acceptance of Edible insect, is something that we need to bear in mind.
Not all consumers can be associated insect with the mainstream diet, but we ought to know that the eating insect can be a very sustainable and viable option, and not just for environmental sustainability, but also for the nutrition requirement of our consumers.
Yeah, I see.
And, this new approval of insects in food, what do you think its impact will be on new product development and R&D practices in the country and any new products that can be launched?
So when we talk about edible insect, how do we Procure them?
How do we have sufficient edible insight to sort of satisfy consumer need, if there is any need.
What we're talking about.
The easiness to develop insect farming as compared to other types of urban solutions, for example, cultivated meat or other type of plant-based materials for alternative food sources.
Insects, in contrast, they are, they don't, the insect farming will not need sunlight, so it's the energy efficient.
And they don't need too much water also.
So it's a really a resource efficient type of urban farming.
On, on top of that, they can also go vertical.
So it's a space, , efficient as.
If we talk about how to make insect part and parcel of Our diet which can be accepted by consumer in general.
My suggestion would be to introduce or reintroduce edible insight into our diet gradually, gradually, meaning that If consumers are skeptical of eating the whole insect in the diet, maybe we can use the insect protein, for the edible insect protein as a replacement or fortification of current processed food.
For example, we can introduce insect protein into the pasta or other type of processed food to enhance.
Nutrition value.
The consumers are very practical.
If they think the price point is reasonable and the taste is not too different from what they used to eat, then the chances are they will accept this novel food.
So I personally, I, I have tasted both insect protein.
And baked pasta, as as a, a wholesale, you know, fried insect.
Both are acceptable to me, but I think to, to begin with, we should go by a gradual introduction of insect protein, edible insect protein into our diet.
Then once consumers are used to this new addition of nutri nutrition sources, the chances.
That they will, they will be more open-minded towards edible insect.
But when I mentioned gradual introduction into the processed food, you start to hide the composition of insect protein, but with proper labeling, but, if consumers do not detect any off flavor or something that they find it unusual, the chances are they will, they, they, they, they may find it easy to accept.
Yeah, that's really an interesting point of view, introducing it in the form that consumers can accept, and then you mentioned the labeling part.
What ideas do you think, how manufacturers can label them to, you know, remove the disgust factor that's associated with the insects?
I would say, focus will not be on, on, on labeling.
Edible insect in this you know, any particular food product.
Rather emphasize on the nutrition part.
For example, this is , enhanced with nutrient with this particular food product has nutrition enhancement for edible insects are proven to be safe.
Something like that.
I think, this will be a, a sort of a one way to start with.
Great, that's an interesting point of view as.
And when it comes to food security, what role do you think insect protein can play in that?
We, I, I will see that the insect, edible insect protein will provide us with a sustainable and cost-effective way of, , animal protein supply.
So with all these climate change and the, , extreme weather conditions, not just the heat, affecting the, the animal farm, but also, in general, the food system.
So we ought to have more options.
We talk about urban solution developed, for example, through development of, cultivated meat, plant-based meat.
All these are good, but, , one drawback, immediate drawback is the The cost of these new food sources.
And he said, I will not elaborate on the, on why the cost come is so high, but rather emphasize on the benefit of having edible insect as a, a viable option.
As I mentioned before, insect farming.
Will be overall resource sufficient.
They do not need electricity, so the energy consumption will be low.
They do not need, they need a lot less water than any type of urban farming solutions.
And, and also, they They, they are sort of a space efficient because they can go 3D any, anywhere in the city, can be underground, can be, can be in abandoned factory.
So it's a, it's sort of easy to To develop and easy to maintain.
The only thing we need to consider is to integrate these different production, farm, insect production, insect farm, and then, convert into a, a sort of a processing, common processing place so that we will have a sustainable supply of insects, but of course, insect is not, is not a silver bullet for, to solve what the food security challenges.
We also need to bear in mind that the, proper food safety risk assessment on edible insect ought to be.
Carried out properly.
For example, we know that insect as a, can be reached in the exoskeleton.
The shell of the insect is rich in chitin, some substance that we find in the, prawn shell, and some shellfish, and we know that there are certain, , niche of consumers.
A certain group of consumers who are allergic to, who can develop allergy, allergies, reaction towards, shellfish.
And, , so we, we, we advise consumers to not just, take insect, edible insects as a wholeheartedly, but also assess their own condition to see whether they are suitable to take.
To take in this edible insect in the diet, yeah.
OK, very interesting.
And when it comes to research in the insect protein segment, what role is NTU playing in insect protein advancement?
I always believed that, , Insects are in a way like consumers, we are what we eat.
Therefore, feeding insect with a proper feedstock, nutritious feedstock will also enhance nutritional value of end product, the insect protein.
So I believe that NTU has a very strong research capabilities in upcycling food processing site stream like the soybean residue and the Parispan green sort of create this, in a part and parcel of this food circular economy model.
And we also know that some of these upcycle side streams, we call it side stream, like soybean residue of bispanrene.
Have very high nutrition value.
Profound, and, and they are suitable to be insect feed.
So instead of developing insect farm in the city like Singapore, where we do not have the proper grass to feed the insects, we can actually look In the country to look for proper feedstock, , so that to develop really this sustainable, and nutritious edible insect as, as our future source.
Another contribution for NTU will be from the Singapore.
Futur food safety hub to really characterize the risk assessment of edible insects.
But here, we're not talking about just allergen, identifying the potential risks, but also, characterize these risks because we know that, for example, the allergy reaction for shellfish.
This was, the main causes of one particular protein.
We also know that this particular protein can be degraded through some natural process, and we are applying this natural process to the insect protein to see whether , we can also reduce or mitigate the allergy, the risk of developing allergy reaction to consumers.
So you can see that we are, we have an innovation, but we also have these checks and balances through a proper risk assessment.
Therefore, I see NTU can play a significant role in This, making this edible insects safe and sustainable produce source for consumers, and not limiting to that, we can actually, where our technology platform is actually applicable for other types of normal food, including cultivated meat and, and plant-based meat as , yeah.
OK, interesting.
And I think a great way to end this conversation would be your thoughts on how insect protein advancement and innovations are expected in the future to rise, to what level they can go.
OK.
I, I, my personal, belief, my personal, perspective on the role of edible insects is that, although it is, , sustainable and cost-effective way of, getting animal protein from the nature, You will not be, , you will not be in the foreseeable future, you will not be a mainstream of our diet.
As similarly to other type of alternative food, we believe that, , I believe that, edible insect will be a new option.
To diversify our food source and therefore making our, addressing our food security challenges and making our food system more resilient to changes in the environment.
