EDINCO: Microbial and chemical food safety risks during rearing of insects
This project is realized thanks to the FPS Public Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment. KULeuven, UGent and Thomas More work together to investigate the microbiological and chemical food safety risks of insect breeding.
Both microbiological food safety risks (microbial dynamics during rearing, effect of specific handling procedures and hygiene measurements, transmission of pathogens from the substrate to the insect) and chemical food safety risks (pesticides, heavy metals, bacterial toxins, mycotoxins and veterinary substances) during the rearing of insects are assessed. The project focusses on four insect species on their specific substrate: the yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor), the house cricket (Acheta domesticus), the grasshopper (Locusta migratoria) and the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens). This choice enables the study of different insect species and life stages, as well as different substrates for rearing, for which a broad spectrum of the related food safety risks can be assessed. In this project Lab4Food is responsible for the study of the microbiological food safety risks and the risks regarding heavy metals.
Both microbiological food safety risks (microbial dynamics during rearing, effect of specific handling procedures and hygiene measurements, transmission of pathogens from the substrate to the insect) and chemical food safety risks (pesticides, heavy metals, bacterial toxins, mycotoxins and veterinary substances) during the rearing of insects are assessed. The project focusses on four insect species on their specific substrate: the yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor), the house cricket (Acheta domesticus), the grasshopper (Locusta migratoria) and the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens). This choice enables the study of different insect species and life stages, as well as different substrates for rearing, for which a broad spectrum of the related food safety risks can be assessed. In this project Lab4Food is responsible for the study of the microbiological food safety risks and the risks regarding heavy metals.
