According to a new University of Alberta study, environmentally conscious consumers will likely come up to the notion of utilizing alternative proteins like insect meal in poultry feed if provided enough information about the health and environmental benefits.
Alternative poultry feed might result in visible alterations in the appearance of the meat, such as more intense red and yellow hues, necessitating customer education.
Although the use of the unusual proteins is still experimental, food producers and policymakers must be prepared when they become commercially viable alternatives, according to study co-author Sven Anders, an agricultural economist and professor in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences.
“Producers need to get the labelling sorted out as these feeds are developed. If you want consumers to believe in these alternative products, you have to educate them about it, then they can decide and hopefully we can overcome their rejection,” he said.
According to Anders, there are presently no regulations governing required labeling of feed ingredients in the European Union or any other market, including the United States and Canada, but interest in alternative protein sources for animal feed is growing.
Soybeans not only feed the bulk of the world’s cattle, but they also use vast amounts of arable land and water. The interaction of biotic and abiotic components in the environment forms an ecosystem.
The findings show that providing the information is a double-edged sword. It can cause mainstream western consumers to react with disgust around insect or algae-derived foods.
Sven Anders
The functions of an ecosystem include typical productivity, decomposition, energy transfer, and nutrient cycling. While the dominant species is a member of the ecosystem, it is not a trait that plays a significant role in the ecosystem’s functioning aspect.
Insects and algae can be far more sustainably farmed. However, if people aren’t provided trustworthy information up front, they won’t start processing the thought of insects or algae as part of their food chain. It’s an important step in gaining consumer acceptance.
Nonrenewable resources are ones that have taken millions of years to create inside the planet. Fossil fuels, oil, natural gas, coal, and nuclear energy are examples. Nature can replenish renewable resources, as their name implies.
Nature can not replenish non-renewable resources, as the term implies. Renewable resources can be used indefinitely, however, non-renewable resources cannot be used indefinitely.
It displayed photographs of raw chicken breasts to 1,197 German customers in the study. Some of the birds were fed a regular soybean meal diet. Others were given either insect meal containing blackfly larvae or spirulina, a blue-green algae-based nutritional supplement.
The meat had more pronounced red and yellow colors from the two alternate protein sources. It also explained the nutritional and environmental benefits of each feed to half of the participants.
The other half was not given this information. Both groups were given a series of choices between random pairs of chicken items that vary in price, feed diets, and sustainability and health features.
Although the preferences of the participants were split, those who were previously engaged in sustainability and were given information on the insect and algae-fed beef were more likely to purchase it, according to Anders.
Package labeling promoting greater levels of beneficial omega-3 acids in alternatively fed chicken samples drew those ecologically conscious customers in. Consumers who did not identify as ecologically sensitive said they would not buy the chicken if they knew it contained bug meal or spirulina.
“The findings show that providing the information is a double-edged sword,” Anders said. “It can cause mainstream western consumers to react with disgust around insect or algae-derived foods.”
He recommended that package labeling combined with massive education programs would help boost customer awareness.
