Insects and People: Insects as Human Food

Entomophagy

  • There is a long history of people eating bugs, called entomophagy
  • Aristotle and Pliny the Elder both wrote about it
  • Bible documents many instances
  • Native American Indians ate them as well
  • However, today’s North Americans won’t touch them

History

  • Aristotle believed that immature cicadas taste sweetest when they have attained full size and become pupae. The adult male at first has the best flavor but the females are best shortly after mating when her abdomen fills with eggs… Insect caviar!
  • Pliny wrote about eating grasshoppers and grubs. The grubs were fattened on flour and wine!
  • Leviticus (11:22)

Even those of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind

Why Eat Insects?

  • Insect plagues, food shortages
  • Excellent (sometimes only) source of protein

We All Eat Insects

  • USA Food and Drug Administration says so
  • The average American eats 2-3 pounds of bugs a year

Different Ways to Serve Bugs

  • Often eaten as immatures; fried, dried, roasted, souped, floured
  • Drink them in tequila or eat them as a sweet
  • Buy them canned; usually fried or chocolate-covered
  • For cooking, get them fresh or frozen, not in roadkill
  • Make sure to cook them well; lots of cookbooks are available
  • High in protein, low in saturated fat
  • Some restaurants will cook them for you

Where We Eat Insects

  • Most insects are eaten in Africa, Asia, Central, and South America
  • 80% of the world’s population eats insects by choice
  • Estimate 1,400 insect species eaten, 200 in Mexico
  • Orthoptera is at the top of the list, especially grasshoppers
      * Greeks, NA Indians, Africans, Venezuelans
  • Next in line are Isoptera; winged forms preferred
  • Some Coleoptera (beetles) are favorites
      * Scarabs, including dung beetles
      * Wood-boring beetle grubs and mealworms
  • Hymenoptera are probably next; winged ants and bee larvae
  • Lepidoptera; moths and butterflies
      * Adults without scales and hairs
      * Caterpillars and pupae also
  • Also includes true bugs, flies, roaches, mantids, sticks, etc