New foodie trend: edible insects

Are you sick and tired of always eating pork chops or meat balls? Why not try something new, such as bug meat balls, bug burgers and bug potato chips. Yummy! Joep Derksen takes a closer look.

 

Gone are the days where we all gather around Christmas dinner for turkey and ham. We can now feast on delicious crisp food from mealworms, buffalo worms and wash moth larvae. But the new foodie trend is sparking controversy with animal lovers. Since the beginning of time, insects have been a nutritious delicacy in African and Asian countries. If you haven’t eaten a grasshopper soaked in honey, you haven’t really been to Africa. The European population however, has never really fancied taking a lunch bag filled with dried flies to the office. This attitude may change, since supermarket chain Jumbo has started selling insect products.

There is much to say for introducing insects to our food chain. We all know there are more than enough insects around the world to feed every mouth on this planet. Catching them in one piece and then frying these insects is the hard part, for that matter. But at least there won’t be any discussion about chickens, pigs or cows being mistreated in industrial farming, surely? Not according to Jumbo, which states in a PR message that insect products are “a healthy and good alternative to industrial farming. If you wish to eat anything else than meat or fish, you can go to our supermarkets for these insect products.” Eating insects is becoming ever more acceptable, so it seems. And the supermarket itself has found a way of restocking its shelves after banning the so-called ‘plofkip’; chickens that were fed hormones to grow as fast as possible in six weeks’ time, so that they could be sold as meat.

The insect products, such as the bug burgers, bug meat balls and bug potato chips are available in several flavors: paprika and salted. But there’s a lot more variety to suit everybody’s taste. Just visit the website www.insecteneten.nl and feast your eyes on chocolate-dipped ants, insect lollipops, or the occasional scorpion snack. According to Radio 538, even Angelina Jolie has become enthusiastic about eating insects, after visiting Cambodia. She serves her family bee larvae, roast crickets and maggot pasta, among others.

 

Ending world hunger

And that is just a mere selection of a wide variety of possibilities for insect nourishment. Worldwide, there are about 1,400 different types of insects suitable for human consumption. Edible insects have a protein content of 40% to 70%; compare that to corn, which consists of a mere 10% of protein. Even the United Nations supports the consumption of insects, the BBC reports in an article from May 14, 2013. “Eating insects could help fight world hunger and reduce pollution. More than 2 billion people worldwide already eat bugs as part of their diet.” According to the UN, wasps, beetles and other insects are nutritious, with high protein, fat, and minerals, and are very important “as a food supplement for undernourished children.”

“Among the different types of crickets, the house cricket is the most common type to be used for human consumption. House crickets only live up to about eight weeks. Until they are twenty days old, they are fed high protein animal feed, most commonly chicken feed. A few days before harvesting the forty-five-days old crickets, they are fed various vegetables such as pumpkins, cassava leaves, morning glory leaves, and more. This is done to improve the taste of the insects and reduce the use of the expensive, high-protein animal feed. In order for the meal-worms to live long enough to harvest, they must be kept at a temperatures of 75 to 80 °F (23.9 to 26.7 °C),” tips Wikipedia.

But not everybody is in favor of humans becoming insectivores. Not so much because of the ‘gross’ and ‘yuck’ factor, but out of concern for these fragile flying and creeping animals. The Partij voor de Dieren (Party for the Animals) has made a statement in Europe against eating insects. Europarlmentarian Anja Hazekamp of this party stated recently about the introduction of insect products in supermarkets: “Insects are not vegetables. It is not correct that these products are sold as meat replacers.” She gets support from Rotterdam representative of her party, Jeroen van der Lee, who states that insects should not become subject to a new type of industrial farming. “These animals won’t like it when they are being bred with ten thousand of their siblings on one square meter.” He fights for the rights of our bug friends, starting at the Erasmus University. This school has started banning meat dishes on Mondays. However, insect burgers are still sold on these days. This should not be the case, said  Van der Lee in AD on November 4, 2014: “Insects are animals too.”

               

The end of carnivores?

Just like dinosaurs, modern day carnivores seem to become an extinct species, if research from the Wageningen University & Research Center is to be believed. “Reducing the amount of meat consumed is not a fringe movement. 'Light' meat reducers – people who eat no meat at least one day a week – are in the majority in the Netherlands, comprising 77.1% of the population in 2012. Compared to 2009, the number of 'light' meat reducers has increased (from 69.5% to 77.1%) and the number of people who eat meat every day ('meat lovers') has fallen significantly (from 26.7% to 18.4%). If we use stricter definitions, then 42.5% of people interviewed eat meat at the main meal of the day no more than four days a week, and 14.8% eat meat no more than one or two days a week. If we add the 4.5% meat avoiders (vegetarians and vegans) to that last figure, nearly 20% of respondents eat little or no meat. This is about as many people as those who eat meat every day – the meat lovers at the other end of the spectrum,” the report states.

Spokesperson for the Party for the Animals, Annemarieke de Wind, states: “It is of the greatest importance that people eat less meat, fish, and dairy, because the production of any type of animal protein is very inefficient. In fact, it is a lot more inefficient than eating vegetable food and proteins such as soy, lupine, and peas. A lot of agricultural land is necessary for fodder. Almost half of the harvest of global corn production is used to feed production animals. The production of animal proteins takes too much water and energy.” According to De Wind, the same logic applies to the breeding of insects for human consumption: “Special agricultural land will be needed for these insects; land that cannot be used to grow plants for human consumption. The human population is growing, and we cannot allow ourselves to waste vegetable food for feeding it to production animals. We achieve the lowest ecological foot print when we eat more vegetables.” In fact, according to the University of Minnesota, the Earth can easily populate another 4 billion people extra on this planet if all agricultural land would only be used for feeding human, instead of growing plants for animal consumption or biodiesel products.

Not everybody agrees with this kind of thinking. Typical cattle requires roughly 8 pounds of feed to produce a single pound of beef. Insects, on the other hand, require only 2 pounds of feed to produce 1 pound of meat, making them four times as efficient. Much of this efficiency comes about because bugs get their heat from the environment, instead of having to create their own body heat like typical mammals. Many bugs are more efficient in the amount of nutrients they contain compared to other unhealthy substances and calories. Locusts contain between 8 and 20 milligrams of iron for every 100 grams of locusts. Beef, on the other hand, contains roughly 6 milligrams of iron in the same amount of meat. The raising of typical livestock causes almost 20% of all the greenhouse gases created. Alternative sources of protein in the average diet, such as insects, lowers the amount of livestock needed and can help lower greenhouse gases created in the process. Using insects as part of the diet could replace some of the required space currently used for livestock. And given the size of insects and how fast they reproduce, much less land is required to produce meat.

 

“Eating meat is unnecessary”

The Party for the Animals is convinced that eating meat is no longer necessary. Besides, any carnivore who longs for steak can resort to meat replacers. “They are just as tasty as animal products,” claims De Wind. “It is much more efficient to consume vegetable proteins directly by yourself. People don´t need animal proteins.” Insect food is not the solution, according to De Wind. “We have urgent problems regarding food, climate change, and deforestation. Therefore, it is necessary to develop accessible alternatives for animal proteins. Insect burgers and worm burgers contain a high scare factor for humans. It may be entertaining and popular with the media for a short while, but it neglects the need to enhance the transformation to less animal proteins. According to our standards, an insect burger does not meet our criteria for food that is easily accessible, animal friendly, environmentally friendly and climate friendly. It is a waste that so much time and energy is put into this, rather than into invest in vegetable alternatives.” Companies promoting insect burgers as meat replacers are misleading the consumers, according to the party. “Naturally, insect burgers or worm burgers are not meat replacers, because they still contain animal proteins. Therefore, they should not be sold under the name ´vegetable burger´ or ´meat replacer´. Consumers should be made aware of this through correct labelling of these products.”

 

Eat insects, save the world

Bill Gates writes on his blog: “Raising meat takes a great deal of land and water, and has a substantial environmental impact. Put simply, there’s no way to produce enough meat for nine billion people. Yet we can’t ask everyone to become vegetarians. (As much as I like vegetables, I know I wouldn’t want to give up hamburgers – one of my favorite foods). That’s why we need more options for producing meat without depleting our resources.” Nevertheless, introducing insects as part of our daily menu could become the solution for the problem of feeding the ever-growing world population. There are only so many cows and sheep that can be bred for human consumption. Marcel Dicke is

Professor in Insectology at Wageningen University, and he is a profound proponent of eating insects. According to him, around 70% of all people don’t mind eating  insects. He has written a book: ‘Het Insectenkookboek’ (the Insect Cookbook), and told ANP on October 30, 2014 that the secret of a good insect meal lies in the preparation and cooking. Website www.insecteneten.nl tells us there are other reasons why it is good to eat insects. By eating bugs and cockroaches, we help to save the environment and fight global warming. “The average cockroach farts every 15 minutes. Not less than 20 percent of all methane gas can be attributed to farting insects. Therefore, these insects are also responsible for warming up the atmosphere, melting icebergs and the rising sea levels.”

Still not convinced after reading this article, and still don’t fancy swallowing insects? Rest assured, you are an insectivore already; you have eaten plenty of insects already. If not for the occasional fly that you accidentally swallowed by riding a bike while cruising along the Amsterdam canals, then surely as part of your daily menu. It is almost impossible to get rid of all insects from fruit and vegetables. The official health guidelines in the United States, for instance, allow three drosophila (fruit fly) larvae for every 200 grams of tomato ketchup and deep frozen broccoli can contain 60 aphids (green fly). In other words, you may as well start eating them on purpose.