Tuesday, 9 August 2022 | 12.7°C Dublin

Subscribe
- My Account
- Log Out

News [1]
Opinion [2]
Business [3]
Sport [4]
Life [5]
Style [7]
Entertainment [8]
Travel [9]

Menu Sections

Independentie

News [1]
Opinion [2]
Business [3]
Sport [4]
Life [5]
Style [7]
Entertainment [8]
Travel [9]

Menu Sections

Close

Premium

Eat up your mealworms – insects could soon be on the menu in Ireland

High-protein bug replacements for meat and dairy could help save the planet

The EU has previously cleared grasshopper for human consumption. Photo: Getty

Ynsect co-founder and CEO Antoine Hubert

Ynsect’s vertical farm in Ermelo, Netherlands

AdalbaPro Fiber Textured Insect Protein from Protifarm, an ingredient similar to tofu

Mealworm. Photo: Getty

The EU has previously cleared grasshopper for human consumption. Photo: Getty

Ynsect co-founder and CEO Antoine Hubert

Ynsect’s vertical farm in Ermelo, Netherlands

AdalbaPro Fiber Textured Insect Protein from Protifarm, an ingredient similar to tofu

Mealworm. Photo: Getty

Sarah Collins

August 03 2022 02:30 AM

Insects could soon make their way into Irish pastas, burgers and protein shakes, as a French firm backed by US actor Robert Downey Jr scales up its operations.

Agritech firm Ynsect believes consumers here might be open to eating foods containing insect meal, if studies conducted in the UK are anything to go by.

Agricultural engineer and Ynsect co-founder Antoine Hubert says bugs like the lesser mealworm – approved by the EU for human consumption last month – provide high-protein replacements for meat, dairy, plant and animal feed.

Mr Hubert sees insects as one way to solve a worsening food and climate crisis – and a possible income stream for farmers that may be forced to slash dairy and beef production to help reduce carbon emissions.

“Agriculture and food are the first contributors to the biodiversity collapse, to what we are all seeing, and also the second contributor to climate change after the energy sector,” Mr Hubert told the Irish Independent.

“In Ireland, the thing is not to replace, totally, beef. There is a place and room for beef.

“Insect farming could be, indeed, an activity that becomes interesting for farmers. Today, it’s too big for them, in terms of investment. At a certain point, hopefully, it could be accessible for farmers or a group of farmers.

“I think it could […] provide new jobs, locally, in the countryside in Ireland and in France.”

Farmers will have to slash emissions by 25pc by 2030 under new sectoral emissions ceilings agreed by the Government last week, part of an economy-wide cut of 51pc.

Ynsect co-founder and CEO Antoine Hubert

Agricultural emissions rose 3pc last year – and 19pc in the last decade – and are now 15pc above 1990 levels, the Environmental Protection Agency says.

Agriculture was responsible for 37.5pc of all greenhouse gas emissions in Ireland in 2021, largely a result of the growing dairy herd, which has risen 22.6pc since 2015.

Ynsect operates large-scale “vertical farms” – stacks of trays stretching up to 30 metres high, where mealworms are reproduced and fed - in the Netherlands and at a new plant in Amiens, northern France.

The 10-year-old firm has already raised $425m (€417m) from global investors, including a fund backed by Robert Downey Jr, London-based Talis Capital and impact fund Astanor.

It uses insect meal to produce oils, fertiliser, fish feed, animal feed, pet food, and is setting its sights on human food after the EU cleared Ynsect’s application to market the lesser mealworm for human consumption.

It is the fourth insect the bloc has approved in the last year, after dried yellow mealworm, a larva from the Tenebrio molitor beetle, grasshoppers and crickets.

Mr Hubert estimates the lesser mealworm uses 99pc less land and 45pc less resources to produce the same amount of food as animals.

A OnePoll survey carried out for Ÿnsect last month found 83pc of UK consumers would like to see insect protein incorporated more widely into food products.

Ireland “could have a similar pattern in terms of readiness to buy” insect-based foods, Mr Hubert believes.

Ynsect is looking for new financial partners to help scale its operations across Europe and into Ireland and the UK, once post-Brexit “uncertainty” over the use of mealworm there is cleared up.

The firm also hopes to corner the ‘flexitarian’ and even the vegetarian market.

“Pure vegans will never eat insects,” Mr Hubert says. “But you will see some vegetarians moving and ready to eat insects, especially when they were vegetarians for environmental reasons.”

Eat up your mealworms – insects could soon be on the menu in Ireland

7 Things: Adrian Weckler on Tech

Most Watched

Man flies into air after jumping from roof of water slide in France

Drivers startled as child falls out of car window and ends up in the middle of the lane

Lion's Mane Jellyfish spotted off Dublin coast

Today's News in 90 seconds

Young Kerryman's reaction to getting F1 tickets will brighten your weekend

Latest Technology

Most Read

Latest