AF-15220 Borgen van de veiligheid van insecten (BO-63-001-028, BO-46-002-020, BO-33.04-002-008)

It is for this reason, that – during recent years – the safety of the production of insects has gained attention. Several national authorities, including the Netherlands, Belgium, and France, have published a risk assessment on the safety of the use of insects for feed and/or food. EFSA has released on opinion on this topic at the end of 2015. Those reports are based on current (scientific) knowledge, which is - however - very scattered. In particular, little is known about possible chemical and microbiological contamination, as well as possible allergenicity of reared insects. Some literature and case study descriptions are available for insects caught from the wild. This information is, however, limited to some individual species. For reared insects, such information is even more limited. From the available sources, it seems that certain contaminants may be accumulated by insects from their substrates, whereas other contaminants are not (mostly excreted).