Fancy a quivering shrimp covered with ants?
How about cricket crepes with bamboo worm fudge ice cream, or if you’re looking for a little more sting, scorpion scaloppine?
The next big food trend isn’t growing in your garden, but you could find it crawling around in there.
It
might be hard for some of us to swallow, but creepy crawlies including
crickets, grasshoppers, silkworm, scorpions, bamboo worms, wasp larvae
and ants are becoming the future of food.
Entomophagy
– the human consumption of insects – has existed for tens of thousands
of years. About 1,900 species of insects are known to be eaten by around
two billion people around the world.
However, converting Western consumers to the joys of munching on bugs as more than an exotic treat remains a hard sell.
Eating
insects is growing in popularity and there has been a rise in the
number of restaurants around the world serving insects in strange and
creative ways.
But are they just a trendy add-on in fancy eateries, or are they the solution to feeding the planet's mushrooming population?
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation at the United Nations:
Insects as food and feed emerge as an especially relevant issue in the twenty-first century due to the rising cost of animal protein, food and feed insecurity, environmental pressures, population growth and increasing demand for protein among the middle classes.
In
a 2013 report, the UN said by 2050 the world will host 9 billion
people, meaning current food production will need to almost double.
To meet the food and nutrition challenges, what we eat and how we produce it needs to be re-evaluated. Inefficiencies need to be rectified and food waste reduced.
In a nutshell, we need to find new ways of growing food.
Cue insect eating.
But why?
According to the UN there are three main reasons bugs should be coming soon to a dinner plate near you:
Health:
Insects are healthy and nutritious alternatives to everyday meats
like chicken, beef, pork and fish. Also, many are rich in protein and
good fats as well as packed with iron, calcium and zinc.
Environmental:
Insects emit less greenhouse gases than most livestock, and insect
rearing doesn’t require land to be cleared to expand production.
Livelihoods: Harvesting/rearing
of insects (or ‘mini-livestock’) is a low-tech, low-capital investment
option which offers job opportunities to even the poorest sections of
society.
Eating insects is common in many countries around the world.
No
one in Thailand would bat an eyelid at munching on a cricket as a
snack, or slurping on silkworms in China or gobbling grasshoppers in
Mexico.
However,
according to the UN, in most Western countries the eating of things
which have been crawling on the ground or in your garden is viewed with
disgust and associated with primitive behaviour.
But change is in the air.
Restaurants jump on the trend
The
internationally-renowned restaurant Noma in Copenhagen, often named as
the world’s best restaurant, is helping to promote the insect-eating
trend.
Using
ants is old hat for Noma, which has served them at its flagship
restaurant with beef tartar, among other dishes. And at a pop-up
restaurant in Tokyo, Noma's chef and co-owner, René Redzepi, created a
much vaunted opening course: jumbo shrimp so fresh it was
still twitching with life, served with a smattering of black ants as
garnish.
In
2008, Redzepi co-founded the Nordic Food Lab, a non-profit foundation
for culinary research. One of the lab's main activities is exploring the
gastronomic qualities of insects.
With
the rise of culinary research institutes such as Nordic Food Lab and
top restaurants like Noma using insects, the hospitality industry is
increasingly jumping on the bandwagon.
For
example, late last year Britain opened its first insect restaurant,
Grub Kitchen in Pembrokeshire, south-west Wales. Its tagline? “Turning
eating insects from novelty to normalcy."
The
menu features the restaurant’s signature bug burger packed with
mealworms, crickets and grasshoppers, as well as an intriguing-sounding
bamboo worm pad Thai curry.
For
sweet tooths, desserts include cricket crepes accompanied by bamboo
worm fudge ice cream, and treacle tart with a side of bug brittle.
What about the taste?
Insects can taste nutty to mushroomy and fishy, from crunchy to gooey and meaty.
For
example, mealworms taste nutty and light with a crunchy texture, while
giant waterbugs taste similar to a sweet scallop with hints of anise in
the head.
Crickets taste and feel a lot like a potato chip, while cicadas are like asparagus or potato.
Ants
can taste lemony, vinegary or like sweet-and-sour. Tarantulas are
crab-like and nutty, and scorpions are similar to soft-shell crab or
shrimp in its shell.
The novelty factor
While
they are appearing on our menus more often, the West is still stuck on
viewing insects as a novelty and exotic food, according to the UN.
In
recent years in Europe and the US, several kinds of insect have
appeared on shelves including silkworm pupae and canned ants, fried
grasshoppers and maguey caterpillars.
The
UN report says white agave caterpillars are being exported to Canada
and the US. Each can contains only five or six larvae and sell for a
whopping US$50 per kg.
In
the UK, famous luxury store Harrods and Selfridges sells fancy insect
products like chocolate covered ants and worm crisps, while chocolates
dipped in gold paint and topped with crickets are for sale in Brussels.
Changing perceptions
The
UN is seeking “tailored strategies” that address the West’s “yuck
factor” and break down common myths surrounding entomophagy.
It
has vowed to target governments, ministries of agriculture and
knowledge institutions in developed countries to stop insects being
viewed as a pest instead of a protein.
While
you might be able to buy a gourmet bug burger in a fancy restaurant for
£9.50, in the West we’re still a long way off from picking up a kilo of
silkworm from the local supermarket.
However, the UN is optimistic that will change:
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