Dried, frozen and now also treated with UV rays before becoming flour . The range of options with which it is possible to consume the yellow mealworm on the tables of Europeans is enriched.

The Berlaymont Palace has given the green light to the marketing of powdered whole Tenebrio molitor larvae (also known as yellow mealworms) treated with UV rays, which has been included in a regulation among the EU's "novel foods", that is, those foods or production techniques that Brussels considers not to have been consumed "to a significant extent" before May 1997.

The yellow mealworm larvae had already received the green light from Brussels to be sold in 'dried' and also 'frozen and powdered' form. Now the EU has also given the green light for the use of flour from the larvae treated with ultraviolet rays, then transformed into bread and rolls, cakes, pasta products, processed potato products, cheese and dairy products and fruit and vegetable compotes. And that the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) considers "safe" but which Italy promises to monitor so that "the principle of transparency and the right of citizens to choose with full awareness what they consume through labels and detailed information" is respected, the Undersecretary of Health, Marcello Gemmato, made clear.

For the next five years, at least, only the French company Nutri'Earth, which enjoys industrial property protection, will be able to market the new food, unless another company obtains authorization or consent from Nutri'Earth itself.

The outcry from MEPs Alexander Bernhuber of the EPP and Laurence Trochu of the ECR, who last week tried to oppose the authorisation in the European Parliament by presenting an objection - supported, among others, by MEP Silvia Sardone of the Lega and Paolo Inselvini of the Brothers of Italy who called it "an offence to European farmers" - was of no avail. The objection was then rejected by the Environment Committee (ENVI) by a handful of votes.

Since 2021, Brussels has authorized four insects on the single market as novel foods, considering them an "alternative source of protein". Along with the yellow larva, the short EU list also includes the 'frozen, dried and powdered' Migratory Locust and the 'frozen, dried and powdered' and 'partially defatted' House Cricket (technical name: Acheta domesticus). The fourth and last insect authorized in 2023 by Brussels is the Alphitobius diaperionus, or lesser mealworm.

(Unioneonline/vl)

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