Some key technical issues for the EU insect sector include proving the safety of certain former foodstuffs (e.g., meat, fish) as insect feed substrates, which is currently prohibited by EU regulations. Also, despite the circularity potential of using insect frass as organic fertiliser, some EU Member States allow this, while others do not.

Automation and scaling up of insect farms is needed to reduce production costs, as the sector is dominated by small companies with limited investment capacity. The sector also has limited vertical integration with most companies focusing only on insect processing rather than the whole value chain.

There are also technical obstacles to completely substituting conventional animal-based food and feed with insects. Concerning food, insect protein digestibility may be negatively affected by chitin, requiring its removal during processing.

While insects can induce allergic reactions in consumers sensitive to crustaceans and dust mites through ‘cross-sensitisation’, it is unclear if they can also directly trigger allergic reactions (‘direct sensitisation’). Complete substitution of animal feed like soybean meal with insect meal may negatively affect animal growth.

Legal constraints also slow insect food and feed market development. Under the current novel food legal framework, product authorisations may limit commercial exploitation to specific applicants for a maximum of 5 years, if an applicant so requires, thus hindering technology replicability and market entry.

Few additional insect species (i.e., black soldier fly, honeybee drone brood) are currently being risk-assessed and awaiting for novel food approval at EU level.

As it is the case for other products of animal origin, harmonised EU hygiene rules specific to insects may eventually be needed in the future as this may support a greater level playing field between EU and non-EU operators.  

The principles of the circular economy applied to insects production (namely, the possibility to feed insects with products that are currently prohibited) could present major opportunities for reducing input costs and boosting the further scale up of the sector.

The EU-approved use of insect feed in aquaculture and for other food-producing animals also offers a major opportunity for sector growth in terms of overall production and employment creation.