Page 4 - National Poultry Newspaper

The author with a Cambodian villager after successfully digging out a tarantula, which later would be enjoyed back at the villager’s home fried with oil and garlic, along with scrumptious scorpions, also harvested in the field.
HAVING a taste for in- sects myself, and chicken and eggs for that matter, got me thinking when I read that live insects were being fed to chick- ens in Europe.
Netherlands-based Ra- bobank animal protein strategist Justin Sherrard, while commenting about consumer willingness to pay premiums for sus- tainably farmed products, suggested the market had stepped up a level in Eu- rope with eggs now com- ing from hens with diets including live insects.
The marketing ‘logic’ was that chickens had evolved from scratching the ground to get grubs and other critters to the surface so they could eat them.
Also, it was suggest- ed that if farmed, free range chickens that bus- ily pecked and scratched at the ground were less likely to peck and harm each other.
According to Sherrard, these eggs were popular because the product con- nected to shopper values, who felt good about what they were buying.
Believe it or not, but there is an EU non-profit organisation, The Inter- national Platform of In- sects for Food and Feed, which represents the in- terests of the insect pro- duction sector towards EU policymakers, European stakeholders and citizens.
Created in 2012, the association today has 50-plus members, most of whom are European
vegetal proteins sourc- es (such as peas, field peas and lupins) are best suited to replace soy con- tent in the ration of these animals.
Insect nutritional char- acteristics (protein con- tent, amino acid profile and/or digestibility lev- els) are, however, more comparable to those of fishmeal products, mak- ing them a more pertinent substitute in the diet of certain fish species (in- cluding trout and Atlantic salmon) or shellfish (such as shrimp).
Apparently, the largest retailer in the Nether- lands, Albert Heijn, stocks an egg brand, ‘Oerei’, which are eggs from lay- ers that have had the soy in their diet replaced by live insects.
Oerei make the obvious point that chickens are not vegetarian by nature, but man has made them that way.
In nature, hens prefers to spend the day looking for insects.
Hens not only like them, but it also ensures they don’t become bored and peck others.
In addition to grains and seeds, Oerei hens enjoy live insects scattered sev- eral times a day.
One month ago, Oerei explained why it started producing its eggs and why it goes far beyond that it is only good for the chicken to get such a diet and show its resultant behaviour.
Its stated reasoning makes for good reading
and also makes a lot of sense.
Protix, the parent com- pany behind Oerei, has a vision of the entire global food system: “An- nually, one-third of the food produced worldwide is wasted, while one in nine people is malnour- ished. The conclusion is clear: the food system is out of balance.”
As we now have moved
into the 2020s, returning balance to the world’s food, water and energy needs surely must be a priority for governments, communities and individuals.
Let’s hope some in- formed, thoughtful 2020 vision makes that happen, because looking back at what we humans have done to planet earth in the past 20 years is not a pretty sight.
Edible insects – you must be ‘yolking’
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Cant Comment by BRENDON CANT
small and medium-sized enterprises who produce insects for the European market.
IPIFF is convinced in- sects may soon be a reli- able alternative or addi- tion to fishmeal and soy in feed formulae for aq- uaculture and/or livestock animals.
IPIFF does not, how- ever, consider the total replacement of major sources such as soy meal realistic.
While insects may be- come a major additional source of protein for spe- cies such as poultry and pigs, it can’t totally sub- stitute for vegetal compo- nents of their diet, due to significant differences in nutrient and/or amino acid profiles.
Instead, alternative
The author so enjoyed this mixed insect plate at Bugs Café in Siem Reap, Cambodia, in 2015 that he went out the next day hunting and harvesting tarantulas and scorpions for a feed in the field.
The author enjoyed eating tarantulas in Cambodia.
Page 4 – National Poultry Newspaper, January 2020
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