Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has plans to bring forward legislative proposals enabling the use of insect protein in pelleted chicken and pig feed in the UK, as approved by the EU in 2020.

In 2021 the EU amended their Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSE) legislation to allow the use of insect protein in pig and poultry feed.

The EU had been working on these changes since the publication of their TSE Roadmap 2 in 2010. The European Food Safety Authority completed multiple risk assessments on behalf of the EU to inform the changes to their feed controls.

Following EU exit, Defra has been working with devolved administrations and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) on a review of our domestic controls of livestock feed. Risk assessments were commissioned from the Animal Plant and Health Agency in summer 2021, to assess the animal health risk of the changes. These risk assessments are being finalised and public health considerations assessed by the FSA.

The conclusions of these risk assessments will inform decisions on whether to revise our existing feed controls.

Defra has also recently commissioned a scientific review on the use of insects as animal feed, including examining the evidence around nutritional, socio-economic and environmental considerations.

An enhanced evidence base will help us to better understand how insect farming could contribute to sustainable poultry and pig feed production.