Researchers hope insect-based dishes, such as fried crickets, will one day bowl over consumers
Emma Gatten – The Telegraph Aug 28, 2024
A research centre backed by the Government will work to get insects and other meat alternatives onto supermarket shelves and make them more palatable to the public.
Innovation in meat alternatives has risen in recent years amid growing recognition of the environmental impact of animal agriculture, which accounts for around 80 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions from food production globally.
Mince created from crickets harvested in Cambridge and pet food made of chicken cultivated from egg cells are two of the products recently launched by British-based companies which it is hoped will become more widely available.
The National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre (NAPIC) will look at how to cut red tape and ensure food safety, while also exploring ways to sell meat alternatives to shoppers through focus groups and surveys.
Prof Anwesha Sarkar, from the University of Leeds, where the research centre will be based, said: “We want to make alternative proteins mainstream for a more sustainable planet.”
Prof Guy Poppy from UK Research and Innovation, a Government quango that is providing funding to the centre, said it could explore which kinds of insect protein shoppers were most likely to buy.
“Culturally in the UK, why is it that people might be happy to eat a prawn but not an insect? Understanding why that is the case would be helpful,” he said.
“Then it’s about understanding what levels of processing would be required to turn that insect into something people are willing to eat.
“Is it that it needs to be ground into a powder, and that becomes a protein-based cookie, maybe with reduced fat and sugar, or is there some intermediate in which the insect is turned into something that looks like a burger?”
The Conservative Government pledged to make the UK a leader in alternative proteins as a key part of its strategy to cut emissions from agriculture.
More than 90 per cent of protein purchased in supermarkets is derived from animals, according to the Institute for Sustainable Food (ISF) at the University of Sheffield.
The new research centre will also receive £23 million in funding from multinationals and other businesses hoping to cash in on an industry that could be worth nearly £7 billion a year, according to estimates from the think tank Green Alliance.
Nudging techniques
Researchers will look at potential allergens, health impacts and ways to allay concerns about taste and price.
“We know that consumers won’t buy food that they don’t find appealing or that’s more expensive than their traditional choices,” said Prof Louise Dye, from the ISF.
“We also have to be sure that any new alternative proteins are safe and healthy.”
The centre will explore potential options for the Government or industry to persuade people to swap their steak for a plant-based or lab-grown alternative, such as nudging techniques, or public information campaigns.
Another option could be blending plant-based options into traditional products such as milk to reduce carbon emissions, Prof Dye said.
The burgeoning alternative meat industry has prompted a backlash from farmers, who argue it undermines the agricultural sector.
The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, a leading industry body, recently launched its own Let’s Eat Balanced campaign, which encourages people to consume beef, lamb and dairy.
In Italy, the Government has banned lab-grown meat, while France has ruled that plant-based foods cannot share a name with their meat inspiration.
It tastes like….chicken!
Because of “green-house gases” , which are not a factor in the real world, at least not this planet (maybe Venus)
“Prof Guy Poppy from UK Research….”
ONLY in the effete “shirt-lifting” milieu of the B’witish ‘Upper C’wust’ could you get away wafting through life – while spouting gibberish on the way – with a name such as “Guy Poppy”!
LMAO!! 😂
Keir Starmer has been invited to spend time with the new King at Balmoral. The Daily Record says this is a regular event where the PM spends summer with the monarch. Maybe so. But what isn’t regular is both men are members of the WEF, elitists who will act in the interests of globalists and not we the people.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/king-hosts-prime-minister-sir-33577235
TV personality jeremy clarkson led a blistering attack on starmer
the ” commie boy” for labour discussions on putting a heavy tax on real meat
starmer is a man to fear, he will bleed us financially to pay for all the migrants coming here
and why did he go to epsteins island with pervert mandelson ?
[which accounts for around 80 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions from food production globally.]
Oh, for Gods sake. Carbon Dioxide (0.04% of atmosphere,,, 3% of that 0.04% is caused by humans) Can we stop the insanity, please! Are we really this stupid? Thr whole article reeks of insanity.
I can’t even read this bullshit anymore.
yes there can be living bug eggs surviving in it
and you can get worms in your organs .
roast,cook it good !
As I’ve remarked before–too many people on the planet–traditional methods of farming & food consumption will not sustain the augmentation of the subhuman. ZWOG has to develop new diets & artificial food technologies to feed the monkey-headed Asians, ape-headed Africans & mestizos of Latin America.. 7-8 billion ballooning wogs on the planet must be fed someway to increase their population so they can continue inundating the West & replace/eliminate the white race via numbers, murders & miscegenation. Now we know.
SAVE THE WORLD ! DONT FART !
NEW GUINEA CANNIBALS CAN
TEACH US A LESSON !
kuru !
Find the clips where Nicole Kidman eats crickets and Angelina Jolie eats a tarantula. If that doesn’t cure your normie friends I don’t know what would. If they can even watch it without vomiting. I hope those two idiots get cancer from teh chitin within the bugs.
anti JHWH–are you a cannibal, then?
“Guy Poppy”. Only a liberal intellectual or a trans adult entertainer could have a name like that!
The shirt lifters have taken control
Peter mandelson and Tony Blair are known to be pushing starmer
to puta heavy tax on real meat.
the highest suicide rate in the UK is small farmers being pushed out of business by government, they want the land to build rabbit hutch houses for more migrants
hamas are doing a fair job clearing israel lets send them there
The world has an insect problem (shortage), most plants are fertilized by insects not just bees. Let’s eat all the insects so everybody and everything dies. And anyway, after the man-made famine, 3 more plagues, economic crash and world war there will be no food shortages for 1000 years.
It’s just not cricket. If they tell me to eat those bugs, I’ll tell them to bugger off and hop it!🤣