Legal framework for the marketing of food insects in the European Union

Peer reviewed / Manuscript (overview) received: 19 June 2019 / Revision accepted: 07 October 2019

Introduction

Recently, there has been increasing discussion around the topic of “insects as food” in the European Union (EU). Obstacles standing in the way of the consumption of food insects include not only consumer hesitancy, but also legal uncertainty. Prior to 1 January 2018, there was no consistent legal framework dealing with food insects in the EU.
Although Regulation (EC) No 258/97 on novel foods and novel food ingredients ( List of Legislative Requirements) was in force until 31 December 2017, it was not applicable to whole insects, parts of insects or ingredients derived from insects (e.g. insect flour), as it only applied to food ingredients isolated from animals (e.g. insect extracts). Therefore, they were able to be marketed without authorization (Regulation (EC) No 258/97 Art. 1 [2] e).

Whole insects, insect parts and ingredients derived from insects were specifically included in the legal framework for the first time in Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 on novel foods, which has been fully valid since 1 January 2018.

Material and methods

In addition to the incorporation of EU legislation, from February to March 2019, inquiries were sent by e-mail to the competent authorities for food monitoring in all EU member states as well as those in the individual German federal states [1, 2].

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the current legal situation concerning the marketing of food insects in the European Union. It also details how this issue can be expected to be handled in the future. For this article, a study of the current legislation was carried out and the competent authorities in European member states and in the individual German federal states were surveyed. Since Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 became completely valid on 1 January 2018 and since the authorization requirement became applicable on the same date, different countries within the European Union have interpreted the transitional provisions of Article 35 (2) of the regulation differently. This has resulted in differences in the species of insects that are allowed to continue to be marketed in the various countries until a decision is made regarding the applications concerning those species for authorization as novel foods or regarding notification about them as traditional foods from third countries.

Keywords: Food insects, entomophagy, European Union, marketing

This article outlines the current legal conditions for the marketing of food insects in the European Union as of 7 October 2019 (date of acceptance of the article). Any new legal developments that have taken place since that date are not taken into account in the article.

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