- Green Lifestyle
Crispy crickets? Or: Is insect food really an option?
Crispy fried cricket? Or grasshopper as a crunchy chocolate snack? Okaaaay… Personally, the idea gives me the creeps. Yet, insect food is absolutely normal in many parts of the world.
Babette Lichtenford
That is why you can find a large and diverse range of insect food in these countries. Here, in the European Union, mealworms, grasshoppers, crickets, and (attention!) litter beetles have actually only been approved as food for 2-3 years. Even though the little crawlers have a lot of ecological and nutritional advantages. You just have to like them – which, in fact, over 2 billion people in the world do. Do you?
What insect food can do.
Edible insects are rich in fiber, vitamins, and minerals, contain up to 70 percent protein, and their carbon footprint is up to a hundred times smaller than that of beef according to studies – also because a much larger proportion of the animals can be utilized. ** You just have to breed them on a large scale, which is already happening in the Netherlands and Austria. Germany seems to be lagging behind. However, a large and established meat processor entered the market last year.
Insect food has obviously great potential – for one thing, to solve the world food crisis. On the other hand, to offer sensible alternatives to beef, soy, and the like. It would also make food producers more independent of global supply chains and more resilient to crises. What’s more, insects also offer a solution for the circular economy: Just think of the recycling of organic waste (see link list: insect biorefinery).
And honestly, when insect food is served as “high protein pasta” like the start-up Beneto promotes it, then (at least for me) a “yuck!” is no longer an issue.
We can only hope that the breeding, fattening, and keeping is done “properly” – and not with antibiotics as in classic factory farming.
What do you think? Could you get used to insect food? And if so, in what form? As a coffee substitute, the crawlers (as of today) are definitely out of the question. But apart from that? Feel free to write us in the comments, we’re looking forward to it.
If you would like to have some background information about insect food, insect farming, or even circular economy through insects, we have some links for you:
www.insektenwirtschaft.de/
www.livinfarms.com/insect-factory/
www.igb.fraunhofer.de/de/referenzprojekte/inbira-insektenbioraffinerie.html
Sources:
*International Platform of Insects for Food and Feed (IPIFF) (PDF)
**www.absatzwirtschaft.de/insektenfood-einmal-mehlwurm-bitte-241135/
