New foods you never thought to eat

Today we can find restaurants and shops with all kinds of food, and with offers that include the culinary delights of each country, getting closer to products that are not typical of our gastronomy. But, apart from the vegetables typical of each growing area or the different forms of preparation, nowadays we can also taste "foods" that in our culture we have rarely considered as such. Crickets, violets, worms of flour, begonias, chia seeds ...? Are they food?

What are the new foods?

The Spanish Agency for Consumption, Food Safety and Nutrition (AECOSAN) defines that when we talk about "new foods" we can be talking about these products:

• Foods that are consumed outside the European Union and within it their consumption has not been common in recent years, such as insects.
• Food produced using new technologies and production processes. Like the foods treated with ultraviolet radiation.
• Food from recent creation or innovators, such as Antarctic Krill Oil (Krill is a kind of tiny shrimp, from which oil has been extracted for a few years).

Eat flowers

Despite the fact that flowers, or parts of them, have been consumed for a long time, since the saffron, without going any further, are the stigmas of a flower, or of the broccoliFor example, we also consume the floral part, usually before it begins to open, etc., the flowers are increasingly used both to dress and to decorate the dishes.

This past summer the media echoed a work from the University of Granada that called for attention to the lack of legislation on. Well, there is regulation in this regard, for example, maximum limits of certain components in different types of flowers, but it would be necessary to detail lists of suitable and unsuitable specimens for consumption, as is the case with mushrooms.

Nutritional contribution of flowers

The flowers are plant foods very rich in water They also contain vitamins, minerals and different types of bioactive substances. Now, in the amount in which we usually take them, we speak of rather ornamental flowers such as violets, geraniums or pansy, not broccoli or similar examples, their interest is not precisely the nutritional content, because we are going to eat a small amount. In this case, the color, the texture and aroma It is what you are looking for when you include them on a plate.

If we want to include flowers in the preparation of our dishesWe must always choose those that have been cultivated in order to be consumed. We must bear in mind that, although there are species of plants with edible flowers, We should not consume them if they have been grown for ornamental purposes. The products with which the flowers for food consumption should be treated are specific products for this purpose, as happens with the rest of the foods.

Eating insects

Years ago the insect trade began, but Spanish legislation had a legal vacuum in this regard. Currently, insects are included in the definition of "novel food" in the new Regulation, which provides two types of procedures applicable to insects: the application for authorization of novel foods, or the notification as traditional food from third countries, which will be based on the history of safe food use in a third country, such that such foods must have been consumed in at least one third country for per at least 25 years as part of the usual diet of a significant number of people. For this reason, to start the commercialization of a new species of insects for human consumption, an application for authorization or notification must be submitted and wait for the European Commission to include it on the Union list.

So today we can acquire crickets, beetles, scorpions, ants and different types of worms that are considered fit for human consumption and approved by European legislation. However, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recommends further investigation to obtain data on the presence of chemicals in farmed insects or their use as part of livestock feed.

Nutritional contribution of insects

In each type of insect the nutritional content will vary, but these are small animals that will mainly provide us with protein. And in the case of the larvae, the fat content will not be negligible, it seems to be mainly based on polyunsaturated fatty acids. They can also contribute calcium, magnesium and vitamins of group B. But, being realistic, the same as in the case of flowers, except that we have a very unconventional diet to be in the West, the amount of insects that we can consume will be anecdotal and it will not suppose, in principle, a great nutritional difference in our feeding.

What do the regulations say about these new foods?

As of January 1, 2018, the Council of November 25, 2015 regarding novel foods came into force. New foods are those that had not been largely consumed by humans in the European Union before May 15, 1997, which was when the first Regulation on novel foods. In order to consider a new food as suitable or valid, it must be:

• Sure for the consumers.
• Must be correctly labeled, so as not to mislead consumers.
• If the new food is intended to replace another food, it must not differ in a way that the consumption of the new food is nutritionally disadvantageous to the consumer.
• Therefore, the prior authorization to the commercialization of new foods based on a safety assessment in accordance with the above principles.

• There is a specific regulation to regulate the use of new foods in order to ensure that they are safe and correctly labeled.
• Since many years we consume flowers or parts of them such as artichokes or saffron, but more and more varieties are being marketed.
• The insects are part of the foods included in the new regulation of new foods, thus being regulated its use as food.

Bachelor of Food Science and Technology Diploma in Human Nutrition and Dietetics