Locusts, five types of beetle grub and even a species of honeybee are among the insects deemed good enough to eat, after a decision made in July by authorities in Singapore.
The Singapore Food Agency has also greenlit imports of pasta, chocolate bars and crackers that contain insects as ingredients.
One restaurant – House of Seafood – has added 30 insect dishes to its menu, ranging from sushi topped with silkworms to squid ink pasta sprinkled with house crickets.
“It’s good news,” says Nick Rousseau, founder of the U.K. Edible Insect Association. “Insects are amazing. We’re constantly looking to see how other countries are progressing in opening up the market for these potentially very valuable sources of nutrition, and that then gives us encouragement to think the U.K. might follow suit one day.”
Planet-friendly insect protein has long been touted as a sustainable alternative to western staples such as beef and chicken, and an answer to the growing conundrum of ensuring food security.
Producing a kilo of insect protein emits 1,800 times less greenhouse gases than beef and 700 times less than pork – but requires a fraction of the feedstock.
Insects are also highly edible: around 80% of their bodyweight can be eaten, compared to 55% for chicken and pork, and just 40% for cattle.
“Insect protein is very similar to animal protein in that it has all the amino acids, lots of antioxidants, lots of micronutrients, and is a better source of nutrition than a lot of plant-based protein,” says Rousseau.
“But insects can also be fed on waste, they have a much smaller environmental footprint, so they don’t use as nearly as much water or land, and they don’t emit methane in the way lots of livestock does.”
One study published earlier this year identified 2,205 insect species – almost half of them in Asia – that are being eaten across 128 countries worldwide.
Meanwhile the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization is plugging bugs as a sustainable way to get quality protein in our diets.
Producing a kilo of insect protein emits 1,800 times less greenhouse gases than beef and 700 times less than pork – but requires a fraction of the feedstock
Rousseau says bureaucracy in western markets like the U.K. is still frustrating efforts to get more insect species approved for eating, and to broaden their range of applications, for example, as animal feed.
However taste tests are gradually nibbling away at what Rousseau calls the ‘yuck factor’. “People are just curious,” he says. “I do tastings quite regularly: people want a chance to experience this and to decide for themselves. And time and again, they come back and say: ‘Well, that was great. I can’t stop eating them. I love them’.”
SOURCE: Positive News
