Did the EU allow insects to be secretly added to food? What labelling rules require

Publication date: 10 September 2026.

Claim

The European Union allegedly authorised insect powder in ordinary foods without telling shoppers, meaning people will eat it without knowing.

This is a check of a longstanding claim, not a report of a new September 2026 measure. Euronews described such social media messages in February 2023 after new food ingredients were authorised. We checked the claim against official decisions from 2023 and 2025. We do not establish who originated individual posts or how widely they are circulating today.

Verdict

False as a description of EU rules. Permission to sell a particular ingredient does not remove labelling requirements or oblige manufacturers to use it. Both authorisations examined explicitly require an ingredient designation and a warning about possible allergic reactions in specified groups of consumers.

In brief

• Some insect-derived products are genuinely authorised as novel foods in the EU, subject to conditions of use.

• Partially defatted house cricket powder and UV-treated yellow mealworm powder have specific labelling requirements.

• Authorisation does not prove that a particular packet of bread, pasta or biscuits contains the ingredient.

• A safety assessment for authorised conditions of use does not mean that every person is free from allergy risk.

Why this matters

For shoppers in Lithuania and elsewhere in the EU, this concerns food composition and informed choice rather than a political slogan. The story about secret additions mixes up two questions: what the law allows businesses to sell, and what it requires them to tell consumers. Real allergy warnings should not get lost in that argument.

What we checked

We compared Euronews' account of the circulating claim, the European Commission's explanation, and the annexes to EU Regulations 2023/5 and 2025/89. This check concerns what those rules say. We did not conduct laboratory tests or inspect individual shops for labelling compliance.

Evidence

The 2023 authorisation explicitly requires an ingredient name

Regulation 2023/5 of 3 January 2023 authorised partially defatted powder of Acheta domesticus, the house cricket. Its annex has a dedicated column for additional labelling requirements. It requires the designation “Acheta domesticus (house cricket) partially defatted powder” in the English text. This is not permission to conceal the ingredient behind an unexplained Latin name alone.

It also requires a statement that the ingredient may cause allergic reactions in consumers with known allergies to crustaceans, molluscs and their products, and to dust mites. That statement must appear close to the ingredients list.

The document lists permitted food categories and maximum use levels. Such a list specifies where the ingredient may be used under set conditions, not an instruction to add it to every product in those categories.

The 2025 decision did not remove labelling

Regulation 2025/89 of 20 January 2025 concerns a different ingredient: UV-treated powder of whole Tenebrio molitor larvae, or yellow mealworm. Its annex requires an ingredient designation and a warning about possible reactions in people allergic to crustaceans and their products, and to dust mites.

For this ingredient, the warning must appear close to the ingredients list or, where there is no ingredients list, close to the name of the food. The absence of a list in a particular sales format is therefore not, in itself, permission to hide the warning.

Safety comes with conditions

Both decisions cite EFSA's conclusion that the ingredients are safe under the proposed conditions and levels of use. The same documents discuss allergenicity and further research. Two extremes are therefore wrong: “the EU authorised secretly feeding insects to everyone” and “an authorised product cannot cause an allergic reaction”.

The European Commission also explains that novel foods must be safe and properly labelled so that consumers are not misled. That explanation is consistent with the specific annex requirements, rather than a substitute for them.

What remains unknown

These sources do not establish how many products containing these ingredients are actually sold in each EU country. Nor do they prove compliance by every seller. Checking a particular item requires its exact name, packaging, composition and, where needed, information from the competent authority. We also do not present old social media messages as evidence of a new September 2026 campaign.

Conclusion

A real authorisation of particular ingredients is the starting point of the story. The false step is turning that permission into a right to hide the contents or an obligation for everyone to eat insects. The rules examined require the opposite: an ingredient designation, conditions of use and an allergy warning.

Sources

1. Euronews, 2 February 2023, updated 7 February: account of the claim and labelling check. https://www.euronews.com/2023/02/02/fact-check-is-the-eu-really-going-to-force-us-to-eat-insects-without-our-knowledge

2. EU Regulation 2023/5, especially the annex on labelling requirements. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX%3A32023R0005&from=EN

3. EU Regulation 2025/89, annex on labelling requirements. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32025R0089

4. European Commission, questions and answers on authorising insect-derived foods. https://food.ec.europa.eu/food-safety/novel-food/authorisations/approval-insect-novel-food_en

Corrections and updates

First version: 10 September 2026. If new documents change the findings, this section will record the date, correction and supporting evidence. Report a factual error through the Complaints & corrections section of the Unity Bridge website, identifying the disputed passage and source.