VETERINARY LEGISLATION AND GENERAL REQUIREMENTS TARGETING INSECTS AS FOOD

Abstract

The European Commission's decision to approve the use of insects and their parts for human consumption caused a wave of public discussion and media interest in our country. However, the veterinary perspective on the matter seems to have remained in the shadow of the predominantly discussed ethical and moral considerations on the subject and the opinions of specialists from other fields such as technologists, nutritionists, and control authorities. This led us to consider the issue of the usage of insects as food ingredients for human consumption from the veterinarian's perspective. As a starting point, we use the knowledge about insects, normatively regulated as part of the education process during the study of veterinary medicine and acquired by veterinarians nowadays. In the course of reasoning, we compare that knowledge with the questions, which have arisen in front of the veterinary guild in connection to the input of insects into the composition of foods, and as ingredients of human nutrition, which the European bodies have officially accepted and permitted. We explored normative documents and literary sources, which could answer the question: "Does the veterinary medical profession have a place in this type of husbandry and food production in the future?".