NOVOSIBIRSK, March 28 Biologists from Tomsk State University (TSU) plan to create food supplements with a controlled composition of nutrients based on invertebrates — crickets, marbled cockroaches and earthworms, the press service of the university said on Tuesday.
«Terrestrial invertebrates are very rarely used in Russia, although they are of interest for use as human food, animal feed, and in biomedicine. The goal of our research is to develop biologically active food supplements based on invertebrate biomass, a rich and at the same time environmentally friendly source of protein, vitamins and microelements,” said Anastasia Simakova, head of the department of invertebrate zoology at the TSU Biological Institute.
She noted that the body of each person has its own characteristics, the need for nutrients in the population is different, so scientists want to learn how to regulate the concentration of vitamins and trace elements in the biomass of invertebrates. The creation of nutritional supplements with a controlled composition of nutrients is being carried out as part of a new project supported by the Russian Science Foundation (RSF).
As a promising source of protein and biologically active substances, biologists study marbled cockroaches, crickets, mollusks and earthworms. These species contain few calories, grow mass very quickly, reproduce well, and are unpretentious in maintenance. At the same time, these animals have a short life cycle, which allows scientists to track how much one or another species absorbs and accumulates a certain nutrient.
At the beginning of a series of experiments, biologists determined the initial nutrient composition in the biomass of the selected species. Then the first offspring of invertebrates were transferred to a diet where they receive certain vitamins and microelements. At the next stage, biomass analysis will show how each of the species accumulates the necessary components, which of them is the most promising for use as the basis of dietary supplements.
«We are not talking about replacing the usual food for the population — beef, pork, chicken and other types of protein — with invertebrates. The essence of the idea and the project is precisely in the supply to the human body of those vital elements that we do not receive in the right amount due to our usual diet,» said Simakova.
Scientists note that economically, the cultivation of invertebrates is more profitable than traditional agriculture. The production of one kilogram of invertebrate protein requires on average 500 times less water, 12 times less feed and 10 times less land than the production of 1 kilogram of beef protein. In addition, insect microflora is not pathogenic for humans, the product itself is safe from a microbiological point of view, and the amino acid composition of invertebrate protein is extremely rich and diverse. You can grow them on mini-farms even in Siberia.
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