New insect dog food aims to help environment

Pets are thought to eat around 20 per cent of the world's meat and fish.

That's what a study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, found back in 2017.

It's a number which is set to keep growing with the trend for feeding high quality meat to dogs and cats.

But one company is hoping to tackle this problem by putting insects in dog food to reduce the UK's carbon 'pawprint'.

When compared to beef farming, grubs need just 2% of the land and 4% of the water to produce each kilogram of protein in food

This is not the first company to use insects in food products in the UK.

In November 2018, barbecued bugs even hit the shelves of British supermarkets as Sainsbury's became the first big UK grocer to stock edible insects made by Eat Grub.

Why are insects so good to eat?

A man eating edible freeze-dried crickets

Eating insects isn't actually as unusual as you might think.

More than two billion people around the world already eat them, and scientists say eating bugs could be the key to saving our environment.

They believe insects could help fight world hunger and malnutrition because there are so many of them, they are healthy, and have less of a carbon footprint.

Crickets, grasshoppers and mealworms contain more copper, zinc, magnesium and calcium than beef.

But remember not all bugs and insects are edible! You should always check before you bite!