Food4Thought is a project that aims to change, on the basis of scientific evidence, how young people in Portugal perceive farmed fish and insects as a food source. Funded by the Egas Moniz School of Health & Science and developed in partnership with B2E – Blue Bioeconomy CoLAB) and Thunder Foods, the project will work directly with students in secondary and higher education, the generation now starting to decide what they buy at the supermarket.

Farmed fish and insect production for consumption share a common problem: both are expected to grow significantly over the next decade, yet both face a barrier that is neither technical nor economic, but one of perception.

With wild capture fisheries at their limit, rising demand for protein will have to be met by aquaculture, livestock farming and alternative sources such as insects. “As the population grows and the need for protein for human consumption increases, every source will have to grow: aquaculture, fisheries, livestock production and insects too. What we want is for sustainable production to grow, because otherwise we will struggle to feed the population in the long term. We can never depend on a single type of protein, but on a variety of solutions,” says Elisabete Matos, who leads the project.

If public perception does not keep pace, the risk is real. In aquaculture, for example, consumption that fails to grow can hold back the sector, shifting the pressure onto wild stocks. In the case of insects, a locally produced alternative with a high protein yield and aligned with the circular economy, a lack of acceptance could render economically unviable a sector in which the European Union has invested consistently.

TWO SECTORS, TWO DIFFERENT MYTHS

International research is clear about the nature of the obstacle. With insects, the barrier is mainly emotional. With aquaculture, it is informational, fed by outdated or incorrect information that circulates frequently in health and wellness media.

“With insects, what we want is to draw attention to the fact that we are making emotional rather than rational decisions, and to take apart the question of ‘disgust’ with accessible information. With aquaculture, the challenge is about food-safety concerns, the use, or non-use, of antibiotics and hormones, and other myths that leave consumers uneasy,” Elisabete Matos explains.

LISTEN, ACT AND MEASURE

What sets Food4Thought apart from other food-education initiatives is its three-part design. The project starts by listening to young people; it then uses what it learns to design a tailored educational intervention; and, at the end, it measures again to quantify the change in attitudes, if there is one.

“We don’t just want to know what young people think. We want to use that opinion to design the intervention and, after implementing it, to quantify the change in opinion. And even though this is a small project with a modest budget, our goal is for the intervention to then be used by any other school or university interested in exploring these topics,” the project lead adds.

The fieldwork involves one secondary school and two higher-education institutions, reaching young people from the age of 16. The final result will be not just a set of data, but a replicable teaching model, available to other schools and universities.

About the Egas Moniz School of Health & Science

The Egas Moniz School of Health & Science is a higher-education institution founded in 1982, with a university campus in Monte de Caparica, Almada, just south of Lisbon in Portugal. It offers more than 50 courses in the fields of health and science. Its research is carried out at its interdisciplinary research centre, and its clinical activity is based in its own units, including the Egas Moniz University Clinic and a university veterinary hospital.

About B2E CoLAB B2E

Blue Bioeconomy CoLAB is a non-profit association based in Matosinhos, in northern Portugal. Its mission is to bridge research and the market in the blue bioeconomy. It brings together universities, research centres and companies from the sector and works across the field, from aquaculture to the valorisation of marine resources, with a focus on technology transfer and market-oriented innovation.

About Thunder Foods

Thunder Foods is a Portuguese company founded in 2021, dedicated to producing protein from Tenebrio molitor, the mealworm, for human and animal food, and organic fertilisers resulting from the production process.