Opinion, experience, future
Go on don't be a wuss...
So I land in Bangkok on 25th December 2015, hungry. Christmas dinner is laid out on street food stalls on the Khao San Road.
The next night I met up with some travelling companions and we drove into Cambodia. When we stopped at the Cambodian equivalent of a motorway service station, these were on offer:
I stocked up. The tarantula in barbecue sauce were particularly yum – crispy yet chewy. You couldn’t feel the hair.
By the time we got to the hotel in Phnom Penh I had quite a stash. I offered them to the others and got mixed responses. I laid them out on a table and held a taste session.
Mild and nutty, without seasoning...
It’s this mild nutty flavor, along with their small size, that make edible insects work as snacks when seasoned. Also, as an adaptable ingredient to a dish, like tofu without the rubbery texture, or as a source of protein flour.
When I arrived in the UK I didn’t hesitate to import some food-grade bugs from a Thai company. First, as a simple snack, I dipped crickets in chocolate and took them into work. The screams could be heard at the other end of the office building when I told my colleagues what was inside the nobbles of chocolate they’d already eaten. ‘I’m sorry I’m sorry’… ‘aaaagh!’… ‘Kate next time put labels on your food’. Oops. ‘But did you like them?’. Then came recipes: ‘Mealworm Muffins’, ‘Warming Walnut Worm Rice’, ‘Enigmatic Energy Bites’, ‘Toasted Protein Nibblers’. (I’ve included two recipes below).
There's a solid rationale for eating insects - it's much better for the planet than eating meat from farmed livestock plus they’re a healthier source of nutrients.
1. Better for the planet
The population is predicted to increase to around 9 billion by 2050. Amongst other things, this means a rising global demand for dietary protein, however, the current protein resource for the developed world from farmed livestock, such as cattle, pigs and chicken, cannot meet this rising demand.
Also the sprawl of urban areas puts pressure on the global water supplies and agricultural land needed to raise livestock, on top of climactic pressures from global warming.
There are 3 main reasons why incorporating insects into our diets is better for the environment
· Farming insects uses less water and agricultural land
Rearing edible bugs requires much less water and land than the farming of livestock. In fact insect farming kits can now be bought online allowing people to rear critters for food in their own homes!
According to the BBC Tomorrow’s Food programme (2015):
“If a family of four got their protein needs from insects one day a week over a year they would save the planet about 1 million litres of water”
· Insects have greater ‘food conversion efficiency’
Secondly, insects have a greater food conversion efficiency than traditional livestock. This means more protein is produced per unit of feed used during the insect rearing process, due in part to insects being cold-blooded and requiring less energy than farm animals.
Bugs can also be fed on organic waste, e.g. food scraps which would be produced anyway from other human food activities.
· Rearing edible bugs releases fewer harmful chemicals into the environment
Lastly, farmed insects produce lower emissions of methane and ammonia than traditional livestock, and nor do they require pesticides, fertilizer or hormones.
2. Better for health
Insects are also an excellent source nutrients.
Edible bugs pack a protein punch; iIt’s estimated that protein accounts for 40-60% of their dry weight. Members of the ‘Orthoptera’ order – grasshoppers, crickets and locusts are particularly high in protein. Also the protein is good quality, i.e. ‘protein-complete’, which means it contains all 9 of the essential dietary amino acids.
Edible insects are also healthy in other ways –
High in omega 3 and omega 6 unsaturated fats.
High in fibre.
Low in carbohydrate.
Contain vitamins and minerals, for example, vitamin B12, calcium, iron, zinc and more.
The nutritional properties of each insect varies according to species and the diet on which they’re raised, which in turn affects their flavour.
So go on… what are you waiting for?
Entomophagy – the practice of eating insects
In the West:
Anyone who has spent time in western countries will know how squeamish and terrified people are of ‘creepy crawlies’. Maybe it’s the excessive numbers of legs, or antenna? They’re certainly not considered food.
However some wise folk and pioneering entrepreneurs are fostering a fledgling insect cuisine industry in developed nations. It’s now relatively easy to buy food-grade bugs online.
Currently the UK Food Standard Agency allows four insects to be sold as food: Yellow mealworm; House cricket; Banded cricket and the Black soldier fly; other insects must undergo an application ‘novel food authorisation’ before they can be sold. It’s progress.
In fact, insects are actually already being used as a foodstuff whether people know it or not. Several brands of high protein bars are made with cricket powder (made from ground crickets) and a red food colouring called carmine that’s used for sweets, yoghurt and ice-cream is made from boiling the shells of female cochineal beetles. Shellac, another ingredient in sweets comes from the secretions of the Asian Laccifer Lacca bug.
Moreover, despite present day reticence, our human ancestors actually ate bugs before systemized agriculture increased meat production, according to evidence from the fossilized poo of European hunter-gatherers.
Insect remains in fossilized poo, my career as a food writer has just begun.
Globally:
Despite western reluctance, insects are widely eaten throughout the world. An estimated 2 billion people eat insects in parts of Asia, Africa, Central and South America, and Australia. For example, in Indonesia they eat larvae of sago palm weevils, bees, termites, crickets and grasshoppers; Australian Aboriginals eat wichetty grubs; in South-East Asia it’s common to eat deep fried grasshoppers, crickets, bee larvae, silkworm, termites and ant eggs. Chapulines (a type of grasshopper) are eaten in Latin America. Beetles are the most commonly eaten bugs, likely because they're also the most populous. Together, it’s thought up to 2000 different species of insect may be edible.
The ethics…
I’m a vegetarian – yet I’ve eaten and cooked with insects. ‘Well you’re not a vegetarian’ I can hear purists shout – ‘bugs are living things too, is it that they appear insignificant and unlovable, a bit like fish are slimy and grey – so they don’t deserve not to be eaten?’ To which I’d respond – plants are living too.
To me it’s important the bugs, like all living things, don’t suffer. We should apply rigorous welfare standards to bug rearing as for animals. And I would say plants, too. The concept of healthspan – that a being should be allowed to live out it’s healthy life – should also apply in my opinion; I don’t think our current practice of killing animals when young, as our taste for tender meat currently demands, is particularly ethical. It’s also not nature’s way to curtail the life of a young healthy creature. Better to eat mutton than lamb, and well reared mealworms than ‘frankenchicken’.
I see a future where farm reared meat becomes a delicacy, eaten occasionally at a higher cost, while factory grown meat is used for cheaper products. But factory grown meat still requires a lot of energy giving it a larger carbon footprint unless it can be supplied by a renewable source. Moreover, meat… grown in a factory… still with the ethical and health concerns of farmed meat plus the risk of food contamination… isn’t that gross?
Two delicious recipes to try:
Mealworm muffins
Serving: 12 muffins Approx time: 30min
Ingredients
Muffins
2 cups cricket flour
2 cups oats
1 cup raw sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 egg whites
3 small ripe bananas
1/4 cup milk of your choice
1/3 cup coconut oil*
1/2 cup of buffalo worms
Buttercream Topping
1/2 cup coconut oil (butter may be used instead)
4-6 cups icing sugar
1 tsp of vanilla or coconut extract
pinch salt
optional: milk to thin
Decoration
Mealworms
Icing sugar/gold sprinkles
Baby spinach leaves
Chocolate bits
Directions
Preheat oven to 350degF and prepare a 12 cup muffin tin with cases or coconut oil.
Using a large bowl, mix flour, oats, sugar, baking powder and salt and set aside.
Blend together mashed banana, egg whites, milk and coconut oil.
Pour wet mixture into bowl of dry mixture and mix for 30s (medium speed), or until mixture is light and fluffy.
Fold the buffalo worms into the mixture so they are evenly distributed.
Place mixture into muffin cases.
Bake for 12-20min, until golden brown and cooked through.
Remove from oven and leave to cool for 5min.
For the buttercream topping mix the ingredients together vigorously until smooth, adding milk to thin and icing sugar to thicken as needed.
Add the buttercream topping and decorate
Warming Walnut Worm Rice
Serving: 4 Approx time: 40min
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups brown rice
1/2 wild rice
1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups vegetable stock (add more if needed until rice cooked)
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/4-1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4-1/2 cup buffalo worms
fresh coriander
Directions
Using a large saucepan over medium heat, saute the onion in the oil for about 5min until soft.
Add brown rice and wild rice and saute for 2min.
Add garlic and soy and cook for another minute.
Add broth, bring to boil, cover and reduce heat until simmering.
Simmer for about 35min or until all the broth has been absorbed, adding extra broth if required.
Stir in walnuts, seeds and buffalo worms.
Cook for about 5min more until rice is cooked and fluffy.
Remove from heat, serve and garnish with fresh coriander leaves.
