Bugs: Coming To A Supermarket Near You?

[Jazzy]

The founders of Ento, a food start-up using bugs, believe that grasshoppers, crickets and locusts could be a solution to the world's imminent food shortage.

With the global population growing at a rate of 200,000 per day, the Royal College of Art graduates claim that insects are an energy-efficient and nutritious source of food.

Ento co-founder Jacky Chung told Sky News:

"There are more insects than there are people in the world, by mass.

"They win on so many fronts. Locusts, for example are about 72% protein."

Honey caterpillars croquettes and cricket tapenade are among the unconventional foodstuffs to feature in the company's pop-up restaurants, but Ento is facing difficulties marketing insects to a wider audience.

UK consumers are not traditionally receptive to innovations in food. In the past, the introduction of genetically modified food was met with hostility.

Andrew Opie, a leading expert in food sustainability from the British Retail Consortium told Sky News: "The biggest challenge is taking consumers with you so consumers see the benefit for them.

"We've seen with some of the technologies there hasn't been huge support to see that on the shelves."

Ento is currently navigating the complex path of legislation and production which is extremely complicated. There are currently concerns over the digestibility of chitin, the primary constituent of an insect's exoskeleton. The nutritional value of insects is also the subject of further research.

However, they are tried, tested and regularly consumed in other parts of the world. It is estimated that about a third of the global population consumes insects and in Malawi and Japan they are harvested en masse.

Full article with video

Have you or would you eat insects?

 

[DrLeftover]

I remember a supermarket in Dover having bugs.

But they weren't for sale, they were just residents.

 

[~KAGE-008]

I haven't had bugs, but I would in the future. If people over here in CR get used to them after tasting one.

 

[Jazzy]

I (unbeknownst to me) ate a chocolate covered grasshopper once. It wasn't until they told me what I just ate that I felt like puking.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

I (unbeknownst to me) ate a chocolate covered grasshopper once. It wasn't until they told me what I just ate that I felt like puking.

But you didn't feel like puking when you were in ignorant bliss? You just gotta train your brain to think they arent gross

 

[Evil Eye]

I haven't, but I guess I might... maybe.
Can't really argue against that sort of efficiency.

 

[Jazzy]

I (unbeknownst to me) ate a chocolate covered grasshopper once. It wasn't until they told me what I just ate that I felt like puking.

But you didn't feel like puking when you were in ignorant bliss? You just gotta train your brain to think they arent gross

It was crunchy and I was picking legs out of my teeth later.