The diet of the planet must change, but you may not like what is coming

The world may be struggling with a climate crisis and our diet is slowly but surely killing us, but soon we'll all be able to enjoy a nice fly-hot dog, complemented by a refreshing ice-cream scoop. .

Overcrowding is slowly but surely to become a reality for our planet, placing an additional burden on the environment and its resources. One of the key problems of our resource management is the way we get the proteins in our diet. Cattle, be it beef, pork, lamb, goat, poultry or fish, come largely from the world's protein, but it's an extremely inefficient system. This creates tons of carbon emissions, occupies a lot of ground and is not particularly good for health.

If we want to feed the world in a sustainable way in the coming decades, it seems that the proteins of the future will be insects. For example, scientists at the University of Queensland are studying the possibility of using scary crawlies as an alternative source of protein, while making them appetizing enough for tough consumers.

"An overpopulated world will struggle to find enough protein if people do not want to open their minds and stomachs to a much broader notion of food," said Louwrens Hoffman, a professor of meat science at the University of Toronto. University of Queensland. declaration.

"The greatest potential for sustainable protein production is in insects and new plant sources."

Meat, at least as we know it, is surprisingly uneconomical to grow, process and distribute. Cattle need 8 kilograms of food to produce 1 kilogram of meat, but only 40% of the cow can be consumed. If you compare that to crickets, it takes 2 kilograms (4.4 kilograms) of food to produce 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of meat, about 80 percent of which is edible.

However, unless you are a frog, the diet of insects poses a problem of image. Professor Hoffman notes that Western consumers are willing to try insects in prepared foods, but are not comfortable with the idea of ​​eating or preparing meals themselves. insects, unless the insects are disguised.

In collaboration with a team of scientists specializing in food science, Professor Hoffman has come up with many ways to combine alternative proteins in a range of specialty foods, such as sausages made from larvae of the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens).

"Would you like to eat a commercial sausage based on maggots?" Asked Hoffman. "What about other insect larvae and even whole insects like grasshoppers?

"One of my students created a very tasty insect ice cream."

Alternatively, if this does not arouse consumer appetite, the insects could be used to feed the chickens. The team's work has shown that chicken-based diets containing up to 15% of larval flour do not reduce chicken production performance, the effectiveness of use of nutrients, aroma, taste, juiciness and tenderness of the breast, nor the long-chain fatty acid composition.

"Chickens in the wild do not eat food, they eat insects and larvae," Hoffman concluded. "There is a need to better understand the difference between animal feed and food for humans, and to conduct an overall reassessment of what can be healthy, nutritious and healthy foods for all."