Insects as food (edible insects)

Modern humans have used insects as food for many thousands of years. Our human ancestors were even consuming them millions of years ago. Today, many people continue to eat them as a normal part of their everyday diets. Human entomophagy, or the eating of insects, is common in many places in the world, but some areas have a strong cultural bias against eating insects. Whether people eat insects, the insects that people eat, and the processes used for harvesting insects varies greatly depending on the region and culture. Some of the insects that humans most commonly use as food are beetles, caterpillars, bees, wasps, ants, grasshoppers, and crickets. Insects can play an important role in human nutrition. Some people hope that humans will rely on insects for nutrition more in the future.

Background

Scientists have discovered evidence that the earliest human ancestors ate insects as a part of their diet. They likely gathered insects as they collected fruits and nuts for food. A 2014 study suggested that the practice of digging and forging for insects may have helped increase human cognitive skills. This may have led to an increased brain size.

Insects have remained a part of human diets throughout history. Documents indicate that ancient Greeks and Romans ate insects. However, by the sixteenth century, when European colonizers saw indigenous people of the Americas consuming insects, they believed that it showed they were less civilized. Despite the stigmatization of insect eating in Europe, people in most other parts of the world continued to eat insects.

The stigma against eating insects remained in Europe and areas where Europeans colonized, including parts of North America. In the first part of the twenty-first century, people living in the United States and Europe were least likely to consume insects. People living in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, and Oceania were more likely to eat them.

Overview

Roughly ten million insect species live on Earth, though scientists believe many more exist but have not been identified. Of these ten million, humans use about two thousand species for food. The species people eat varies mainly based on the types of insects that live in a particular area. People eat insects during all different times in the insect lifecycle, though many specific species are eaten during only one of the stages. For example, honeybee larvae are commonly eaten, but adult honeybees are eaten less often.

Many commonly eaten insects are from the Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Orthoptera, and Hymenoptera orders. The Lepidoptera order includes butterflies, moths, and skippers. These insects are almost always eaten in their larval stage. Caterpillars, which are moths and butterflies in their larval stage, are eaten in parts of the world. Some commonly eaten insects in this order include bamboo worm, maguey worm, and silkworm.

The Coleoptera order might be the order with most edible insects. The order includes beetles, which are usually eaten in the larval stage. Some commonly eaten insects in this order include rhinoceros beetle larvae, mealworms, and palm weevil larvae.

The Orthoptera order includes mostly grasshoppers, crickets, and locusts. These are also commonly eaten in many different parts of the world, but they are eaten in their nymph adult stages. Crickets can be used to make cricket flour, which people use to make other foods.

The Hymenoptera order includes bees, wasps, ants, and other insects. This huge order is common throughout many parts of the world. People commonly eat bee and wasp larvae and adult ants.

Part of the reason that people have eaten insects for thousands of years is that they provide important macronutrients and micronutrients. Nevertheless, the actual nutritional profiles of edible insects vary widely based on the species, the stage in the life cycle, the method of raising the insect, and the way the insect is prepared. However, some nutritional facts are broadly true about many of the insects that humans use for food. Many types of insects are high in protein and fat and include amino acids and fatty acids. Studies show that insects, in all different stages of life, are made up of about 20 to 70 percent protein. Those studies also indicate that many insects contain the amino acids human need to get from their diets. Many insects are also good sources of fat for humans. Insects in their larval stage generally have more fat than adults. Pupa and adults are usually lower in fat. Fat contact in insects is usually about 10 to 50 percent. Insects contain carbohydrates, but they generally contain only small amounts, with carbohydrates making up roughly 1 to 10 percent of an insect’s body. The polysaccharide chitin is one most common carbohydrates in insects, as it helps make up insect exoskeleton. This nutrient makes insects a source of fiber. Insects are also sources of micronutrients, though those vary widely among individual insects. Insects can include minerals such as potassium, sodium, and zinc. They can include vitamins such as A, D, E, and C. The nutritional value of the insects that people eat also depends on the way the insects are prepared for eat. For example, processed insects seem to contain less protein than unprocessed insects.

Humans who use insects as food can gather insects in the wild, raise insects for consumption, or purchase insects. Throughout most of human history, people have collected insects from the wild to eat. In some parts of the world, it is still common for people to collect insects by hand to eat or to sell. Raising insects for consumption became more common in the early twenty-first century. Individuals who want to raise insects for consumption generally follow certain guidelines to help ensure the insects are safe to eat. People can purchase products, such as cricket flour, that are made from insects. People can also purchase living insects or preprepared insects to eat. For example, in some parts of the world restaurants sell special insect dishes that are considered delicacies. For example, in Mexico, chapulines are deep-fried grasshoppers served in corn tortillas. In Thailand, jing leed is a snack consisting of crickets fried in pepper powder and soy sauce. In Zimbabwe, the mopane caterpillar can be served in numerous ways, either smoked, ground up, or added to sauces or stews. Of course, before they are served, their entrails must be squeezed out.

People can also try foraging for, or even farming, their own insects. Every country has a few native insects that can be safely collected and consumed. Experts advise that insect farming or collecting should only be done with someone who has eaten them before and lived to tell the tale. People who want to try insect farming can follow the guidelines supplied by Open Bug Farm, a collaborative knowledge base that has information about sustainable bug farming.

People eat insects in different ways. Some edible insects are served raw. Some larvae and ants are also commonly served without cooking them. However, most insects are prepared in some way. Common preparations include frying, stewing, roasting, braising, and boiling. Humans often eat insects whole, though in cultures where eating insects is less accepted, people can prepare insects so they are not recognizable as insects.

Although many people throughout the world eat insects, cultural norms surrounding their consumption vary widely in different parts of the world. In the early twenty-first century, the areas of the world where eating insects was least common included Europe and the United States. Research has shown that the biggest reason for people to avoid eating insects for food is that they find it unappealing or disgusting. Furthermore, research from the early 2020s suggested that people from regions where eating insects is not the norm were sometimes likely to try insects out of curiosity; however, they were less likely to continue to eat the insects regularly after they ate it.

Insects used as food pose some risk to humans, just as spoiled produce, meat, and other foods can also pose risks to humans. Some insects accumulate pesticides and other pollutants in their bodies. Furthermore, insects can carry pathogens, such as protozoans and viruses. Nevertheless, people who follow safety protocols when raising, collecting, and processing insects should be able to mitigate most risks. Another safety problem presented by using insects as food is the risk of food allergies. Some people are allergic to arthropods because of the presence of tropomyosin, which is also in shellfish.

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