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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Challenges and opportunities regarding the use of alternative protein sources: Aquaculture and insects

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The world population is constantly growing so that the needs of food, including protein sources, will also increase considerably in the coming years. Animal farming has been related to numerous environmental consequences such as soil erosion, exaggerated water consumption, generation of large quantities of waste and accumulation of greenhouse gases. This is a situation that demonstrates the suitability and importance of finding more sustainable protein alternatives without losing the quality and the nutritional benefits of current common protein sources. In this context, it is worth highlighting the potential of insects and products derived from aquaculture. Particularly, farmed aquatic food products can reduce the impact on wild fish stocks, whose overfishing may end up in an ecological collapse, and insects are easy to be reared and efficient in converting feed into biomass. However, there are still several challenges like the need to adapt technologies and methods for the production and well-characterization of the new ingredients, careful evaluation of the introduction of such new proteins in the diet and its safety of use, including potential allergies, and the acceptance by consumers.