Forum: Demand for insect-based food should come not only from producers

The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) needs to balance the public interest against the expectations of sellers of insects-as-human-food (

Frustrations mounting among companies selling insects as food as SFA delays approval

, Jan 21).

The Government must prioritise the well-being of the majority, not those of industry stakeholders or the demands of activist groups.

Insect industry stakeholders and environmental activists provide self-serving reasons for their impatience with the SFA’s delay in approving insect consumption. These include reasons such as cricket farming being more sustainable than conventional poultry farming, as it uses less water, feed and land, and that cricket waste can be used as fertiliser for plants.

But these factual reasons fail to address the most important questions.

Is there any strong, verifiable consumer demand for insect-based food or for insect-derived ingredients like those used in snacks, sauces or meat products? We are unfamiliar with long-term health effects of insect consumption. Given that insect components like chitin can trigger allergic reactions and the potential of insects to carry disease vectors, what is the overall benefit to human health? 

Then there is the question of whether there is any strong, majority-of-the-population demand for insect-based food. Does the public have any assurance that the inclusion of insect matter or insect-derived ingredients in pastas, sauces and faux-meat dishes will be clearly labelled? Consumers have as much a right to know of the presence of insect matter in their foods as they do of fats, sugars or chemical additives.

Eric J. Brooks