From Big to Bug Mac – the edible insect phenomenon

Deep-fried dragonfly larvae with peppermint leaves is one of entomologist Marcel Dicke’s favourite dishes. He also fondly remembers a five-course meal he recently savoured at Pestival in London – a festival exploring human and insect interactivity – that was made from ten species of insects and prepared by the Nordic Food Lab, an organisation run by gastronomic entrepreneur Claus Meyer and head chef of two-Michelin-starred Noma, René Redzepi.

From TED to our cookbooks – insect eating takes hold

Having recently launched The Insect Cookbook, Dicke, professor of entomology at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, has seen a significant development in the public’s perception of entomophagy – eating insects in layman’s terms – since he started promoting them as food in the 1990s.

"Many people laughed, and cringed, at first," he said, "but interest gradually became more serious."

Back in 2006 Dicke created a science festival to promote edible insects, which attracted more than 20,000 visitors, and in 2010 he gave a TED Talk, which now has more than half a million internet views.

Since then support for the idea has come from more established sources in the shape of a 171-page endorsement from the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO), called ‘Edible Insects: Future Prospects for Food and Feed Security’. The report, produced in partnership with Wageningen University, had more than two million downloads in 24 hours.

Despite this progress, most Western countries still view the concept of eating insects with absolute disgust. "Most are reluctant to even consider eating insects and, moreover, that they perceive the practice to be associated with primitive behaviour," states the FAO’s report.

It explains that "disgust forms a basis of moral judgement and plays a major role in people’s reactions" and that as disgust is rooted in culture, it has a large impact on food habits.

From disgust to daily delicacy

In other parts of the world, the attitude towards edible insects is entirely different.

While it is assumed that the practice of eating insects largely occurs in tropical countries – insects are often larger in the tropics and congregate in big groups which maximises harvesting efforts – eating bugs is commonplace in countries such as China, Japan and Mexico, and, in Africa, as when food supplies are scarce, insects become important sources of food.

The report estimates that insects already form part of the traditional diets of at least two billion people and that more than 1,900 species of insect have been used as food, with the most commonly consumed being beetles (31%), caterpillars (18%), bees, wasps and ants (14%), grasshoppers, locusts and crickets (13%), leaf hoppers and plant hoppers (14%) and termites (three percent).

What’s the beef about eating insects?

One of the key drivers behind the argument for eating insects is food security. The FAO reports that more than nine billion people will populate the world by 2050 and that in order to accommodate this number, food production will need to almost double. As there are already one billion hungry people on the plant, if we are to keep up with demand then new ideas for food production need to be considered.

Most of the world’s protein sources currently come from livestock, which uses up to 70% of available land, so the planet simply does not have enough resources to accommodate this immense increase. Furthermore, with incomes on the rise in rapidly developing countries such as China, more people are incorporating meat into their diets, which is putting further strain on existing resources.

Meat production also accounts for 20% of greenhouses gases, through a combination of feed production, animal digestive gases and machinery – and this is also an area of escalation that insect consumption can help to control.

"Insects are reported to emit fewer greenhouse gases and less ammonia than cattle or pigs, and they require significantly less land and water than cattle rearing," states the FAO report. Raising insects is more humane as well, explained Dicke.

"Housing cattle, swine or chicken in high densities causes stress to the animals, but insects like mealworms and locusts naturally like to live in dense quarters – the insects can be crowded into vertical stacked trays or cages."

Insects provide a much needed protein shake up

"Edible insects are a healthy, tasty and sustainable source of protein," say the Ento team, a London-based start-up company which was set up 18 months ago to get "people to eat insects one delicious bite at a time".

What started out as a college project – at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London – for Aran Dasan, Jacky Chung, Julene Aguirre-Bielschowsky and Jonathan Fraser, has grown to become one of many enterprising insect catering companies that are on the rise in the UK and Europe.

"The major change we’ve seen is that a lot more people know of insects as food for human consumption through media exposure," said Dasan. "When we started, we had a lot of explaining to do, but nowadays, many people have heard about it through the TV, radio and newspapers. The perception of insects as food, and the taboo surrounding them, however, is largely unchanged – but we’re working on that."

While you cannot yet walk into an Ento to pick up a beetle burger, the team does cater events on demand – their food looks beautiful, the design is clean and attractive and would not be out of place in a gastronomic restaurant. They say, though, that legislation is complex and the insects they use are sources from insect farms in the Netherlands where they are "raised to the same hygiene standards as traditional livestock".

The Ento team are so positive about the change in public perception that they believe in the next five years customers will be able to walk in and purchase insect-based food, to eat in or takeaway, just like at Eat or Pret A Manger.

Sustainable development will rely on the Bug Mac, not the Big Mac

Damian Clarkson, the managing director of catering company The London Kitchen, is not quite so optimistic about the take up of insects into the western diet. Not long ago he cooked up some edible bugs, including Thai-style crickets with coconut and cream canapés and chocolate-dipped scorpions, and took to the London streets to see how the unprepared public would react and to gather opinions.

"We’re always looking to try different things and we knew that in many cultures, eating bugs and insects was second nature and nobody would blink an eye at locust kebabs," said Clarkson.

"We wanted to make people think – we know that it is a sustainable source of food, high in protein and inexpensive, so we thought we would give it a go."

Reactions to his "pop-up demonstrations" tended to vary depending on the geographical location in London. "They loved them in Carnaby Street," he said. "I remember very clearly the great sight of a Frenchman walking down the road with his plastic glass of wine and a chocolate scorpion."

In Sloane Square the take up was about half and half, and in the City itself passers-by were reportedly more squeamish. "Many didn’t even want to try," he added. The overall results from the experiment have led Clarkson to believe that eating insects is unlikely to take off as "people are used to steak and chicken".

Of course, there was a time when eating raw fish seemed unimaginable and now sushi, with its origins in Asia, is widely available all over Europe.

"People considered us weird until the Minister for Agriculture in the Netherlands provided funding for research, and now the fact that the international organisation for food now endorses this too is very important," said Dicke.

"The sustainable development for feeding the growing world population is in the Bug Mac and not the Big Mac."

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