And you thought cicada recipes were nervous: One food category has taken a strange turn as some food manufacturers are adding insects – and insect flour – to their consumer formulas. Could these creepy crawlers ever get into your family’s shells? Here’s the buzz … in the truest sense of the word.
As many families turn to plant-based shopping lists, one consumer category is turning to the exotic: More and more pet food brands are making insect food for cats. Some of these brands argue that insects like mealworm and the black soldier fly are a good source of nutrients that pets need, like protein and healthy oils, and that insects are a sustainable ingredient: easy to breed with no lots of residual waste.
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If this makes your skin crawl a little, some of these brands offer a slightly less anthropodic version of insect plant food, that is, pet food made from insect meal. This may not be much more appealing, but a sample of U.S. shoppers said they would make it more convenient for their pets to feed this than serving them dried whole insects.
Insect cat food
One of the manufacturers, British Mars Pet Care, who makes Lovebug, the world’s first insect-based cat food, has insisted that they humanly raise, treat and process the insects. Regardless of where you live on a plant-based basis for animal welfare and the health of the planet, the pet food industry reports that when comparing the same serving size of crickets with beef, crickets have 10% fewer calories than beef, almost exactly the same protein content and almost that Half less fat than beef.
But before you pick up on that bowl of worms, there’s one concern some biologists should be wary of if the pet insect food trend takes off: when those insects are not native to the area they are raised, and too Processed pet food can become invasive and even infestation.
The story goes on
The less queasy news? Right now the US government is making it difficult for brands to import insect-based pet foods into the US … but those animals are moving closer together. As the pet food industry reports, Darling Ingredients – a food sustainability company committed to the reuse of food waste – announced plans to develop a research and development office in North Carolina to open early next year. Yes, it happens: the company has already opened its first manufacturing facility in Kentucky.
Sounds crispy. (Hey, if you’re like some of us, maybe your pet will be eaten a lot worse ..?)
When researching food trends, there is one important side effect that your weight gain has on your dog’s health that you should not be missing out on.
