Edible Insects: Why Aren’t We Eating More Bugs?
Some of the most popular edible insects worldwide include beetles and beetle larvae, wasps and wasp larvae, grasshoppers, and butterflies/moths.
NYC Food Policy
Nov 26, 2021
Excerpt:
The European Union has been taking steps to normalize edible insects in 2021. Earlier this year, the EU’s Food Safety Authority determined that dried mealworms (the larvae of the Tenebrio molitor beetle) are safe for human consumption, and in November the EU’s European Commission okayed migratory locusts (Locusta migratoria) in frozen, dried, or powdered form, categorizing them as “novel foods,” defined as “new foods, food from new sources, new substances used in food as well as new ways and technologies for producing food.” Their decision follows Switzerland’s 2017 Foodstuffs Act, which allowed the sale of mealworms, grasshoppers, and crickets in grocery stores.
These insects, like many others, are good sources of fat, protein, and certain important vitamins. And the United Nations has encouraged the global consumption of insects, noting their environmental benefits as a food source. They emit far fewer greenhouse gases than other animals raised as livestock and they have a high feed-conversion efficiency. However, many Western cultures (including the United States and various European countries) resist eating insects, viewing the practice with disgust.
