IFS-NET: Insect Food Security NETwork

食虫定义了许多人类与昆虫的密切关系-特别是它们作为食物的用途。昆虫含有丰富的必需营养素，定期为全球超过20亿人提供急需的营养。昆虫蛋白质含有所有必需氨基酸，并富含热量、微量营养素（如铁含量比牛肉高）和维生素（B族维生素）。昆虫养殖是一个快速发展的农业技术新领域，其中昆虫是以一系列有机原料（从食物废物到农业副产品）为原料种植的。这是一种高效的方式来种植必需营养素-特别是蛋白质;同时也是许多现有动物蛋白质和食品的高度可持续替代品。这一领域的大部分焦点都集中在种植昆虫来制作动物饲料上。尽管全球有超过20亿人将昆虫作为日常饮食的一部分，但在英国和其他西方国家，昆虫食品的消费量仍然微不足道。持续的COVID-19危机再次揭示了全球食品供应链在严重社会困境中的不稳定性。如果食品供应链进一步中断，长期或更严重的危机可能会影响我们国家为更广泛人口提供充足和适当营养的能力，这是一个重大风险。本项目将研究利用昆虫作为一种手段，从当地可用的有机原料中为人类生产优质营养食品。我们将升级现有的动物饲料技术，以满足人类食品生产和加工的更严格要求，从而开发能够应对未来粮食安全风险的新产品和服务。该项目的一个成功成果将是开发一个新系统，该系统能够提高当地的粮食安全，并在类似或比正在进行的COVID-19大流行更严重的社会困境中保护人们免受营养不良和饥荒的影响。

Entomophagy defines many humans' close relationship with insects -- specifically their use as a food. Insects are rich in essential nutrients and regularly provide much needed nutrition to over 2bn people around the world. Insect protein contains all essential amino acids, and are rich in calories, micronutrients (e.g. more iron than beef) and vitamins (B vitamins).Insect farming is a quickly growing new sector of agricultural technology, where insects are grown on a range of organic feedstocks ranging from food wastes to agricultural by-products. It is a highly efficient way to farm essential nutrients -- especially proteins; whilst also being a highly sustainable alternative to many existing animal proteins and foods. Most of the focus in this field has been in the growing of insects to make animal feed. Despite over 2bn people globally consuming insects as part of their diet, insect food consumption remains marginal in the UK and other western states.The ongoing COVID-19 crisis has shed new light on the precarious nature of global food supply chains in times of severe societal distress. There is a significant risk that a prolonged or more severe crisis could impact our nation's ability to provide sufficient and appropriate nutrition to the broader population should food supply chains get disrupted further.This project will investigate the utilization of insects as a means to produce quality, nutritious food for humans from locally available organic feedstocks. We will upgrade existing technologies developed for the animal feed sector to match the more stringent requirements of human food production & processing, and thus develop new products and services capable of addressing future food security risks. A successful outcome of the project will be the development of a new system capable of boosting local food security and protecting against malnutrition and famine in times of severe societal distress similar or worse than the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.