Insects will arrive at your table sooner than you think. It is unlikely that in Spain we will cook dishes with crickets, grasshoppers or worms soon, but products derived from them —such as flour and energy bars— are already beginning to be sold, driven by their high protein content and because they are a very sustainable product. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has recommended consuming these invertebrates for a decade to combat climate change and 2,000 million people do so around the world on a regular basis, but in Europe it has been an eccentricity until recently. Now, after the evaluation of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Commission has just authorized a third bug for human consumption in the EU —in 2021 it approved another two— and is studying allowing another ten in the coming months. Some pioneering businesses venture the boom that this sector will experience in a few years with the challenge of overcoming cultural rejection.
Until 2018, each country could authorize the consumption of these species individually, but since then an evaluation by the EFSA is required. It has already been passed by the house cricket, the migratory locust and the mealworm. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs informs that we are in a transitional period in which another five species can be traded in Spain (flour beetle, desert locust, European bee, black soldier fly and Indian cricket) pending the resolution of the European body.
While the bureaucracy has been put in place relatively recently, specialists and scientists have been analyzing these animals for years. Autonomous University professor Diana Martín investigates the nutritional properties of all of them at the Food Sciences Research Institute (CSIC-UAM): “These invertebrates have a high protein content, even more than meat, dairy and eggs, and the quality of that protein is very good. But they also have a lipid content —fats— that are beneficial for health, as well as micronutrients, vitamins and minerals”. According to the researcher, “the mealworm has a profile of healthy fatty acids, similar to that of olive oil”.
Beyond these characteristics, the CSIC is investigating what other compounds can be extracted from these small animals to create products with added value. Martín points out that they have found minor antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds with the ability to regulate the intestinal microbiota. “We have seen that a substance can be extracted that can help reduce the absorption of lipids from the diet, which could be useful for people with cholesterol or overweight.” In the future, it could be made into pills with black soldier fly extract that can help with weight loss. “We look for ways to present the insects that do not generate so much repulsion,” he sums up.
Cultural rejection is the main barrier when it comes to consuming insects in Europe, where there is no tradition as there is in other parts of the world. However, 19% of Spaniards would dare to eat insects to have a more sustainable diet; of them, 35.9% would do so as long as they were camouflaged as an ingredient and unnoticed, and 16.4% transformed into flour, according to data from the VIII Nestlé Observatory on Nutritional Habits and Family Lifestyle (2021 ). The most open are the young, precisely the group most aware of climate change. “At the CSIC we have carried out several studies and normally young people are delighted to try them, and when they try them they like them”, says Martín.
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Xavi Pera, head of food safety at AECOC, an employers’ association that brings together more than 31,000 Spanish companies, believes that we are going to see more and more products made from these invertebrates: “I don’t think that in five years we will be eating whole grasshoppers like in Mexico, but they are going to use its derivatives, for example in bars for athletes with high protein value, in food supplements…”. Pera believes that these derivatives can help “break that psychological wall.” Neither the Ministry of Agriculture nor the Ministry of Consumption have data on how many insects are currently consumed in Spain.
a budding business
The Trillions website sells since 2017 sustainable sports supplements made with cricket flour, which translate into snacks salty protein, and mealworm, with chocolate or vanilla flavor. “The sports market consumes a lot of protein and we wanted to do it in a more sustainable way, and of course insects are,” explains Alberto Mas, founder of the brand. They are sold in gyms, sports stores and sports platforms, but especially online. “You have to break down a barrier to reach the consumer, but when they try them, they tend to like them and recommend them to others.” Last year they sold about 300 kilos of protein powder imported from central Europe.
Alberto Pérez also ships crickets, worms and grasshoppers —and products made from them— over the internet, via Insectum, but also has a stall in the Ruzafa market, in Valencia. “I tried the ants at a dinner and I loved them, and when I wanted to buy I saw that in Spain you couldn’t, that’s when I started thinking about selling them myself. They are a very nutritious, ecological and sustainable food, the food of the future,” she says.
In its window there are lollipops made with worms and other delicacies made with bugs: nachos, macaroni, energy bars, protein supplements and even eggplant pâté with crickets. “Some people make a face of disgust, but others see the experience as interesting and dare to try them.” Last year he sold about 2,000 packages of these critters, about 20 kilos in total. He says that the Spanish Army even bought a sample from him.
In another market La Boqueria from Barcelona, Isaac Petràs ran the first stall that sold insects in Spain back in 2003, Bolets Petras. “At that time there was nothing like that in Europe either. It brought about 40 varieties from twenty countries and people thought it was very exotic”, says Isaac Petràs, who ran that stall until 2008. Since then, they have had a break and continued selling mushrooms. In 2018, with the new regulation, they went back to selling invertebrates —now by the hand of his brother—, but now they have had to stop again due to supply problems due to the pandemic.
“The best thing about the store has always been the reactions of the people, a vacilón came who then did not dare to try anything, or people who had seen edible insects in Thailand and were encouraged to eat them with us”, he adds. Petràs has also written a book on the subject, Eating insects (Gastro Planet) where he explains his passion for this cuisine and offers original recipes with these animals in collaboration with chef Eva Hausmann. “The bamboo worm has a spectacular flavor, the culona ant has a taste of honey and toasted corn, while the Mexican red ant eggs (called escamoles there) have a fine texture and are delicious,” she summarizes.
If the consumption of invertebrates in Spain is still very incipient, in other neighboring countries they are already going a little further. The Web yumbug (a play on words that could be translated as BichoÑam) sells bags of bugs and publishes all kinds of fun recipes to accompany them: rice pudding with candied crickets, muffins of gruyere and buffalo worm… “Aaron [Thomas] and I started because we were fascinated by insects and we wanted to change the cultural perceptions in the West towards them”, Leo Taylor, one of the founders, says by mail.
He grew up in Southeast Asia: “I was exposed to eating insects as a child. And Aaron is an entomologist (insect scientist), so he’s been around bugs his entire career.” offer packages 6.5 pounds (7.8 euros) and 15 (18). “We cannot ship to Spain due to the high shipping costs after Brexit,” says Taylor. The brand even leaves free samples on London city buses, launching a viral challenge for people to dare to try them (#YumBugChallenge) “to save the planet”.
Less water consumption and fertilizer waste
The FAO highlights that insects are very sustainable because on average they use only two kilos of feed to produce one kilo of meat, while a cow, for example, requires eight kilos for the same amount. The water consumption of invertebrates is also much lower than that of large animals, and their waste is a powerful fertilizer, called frass.
Those reasons led Andrés García de Lis to set up Origin Farms, a cricket farm for human consumption located in La Roda (Albacete). “Last year we produced 30 tons, although the vast majority is exported. In Spain it is allowed to raise and slaughter them by freezing, but not to process them. That is why we have to send them to companies in central Europe so that they can transform them into other foods there,” García complains. The Ministry of Agriculture does not inform when it will be possible to do it in Spain, so all Spanish production for human consumption must be exported to Europe. In Spain there are also insect farms to produce protein feed for pigs and chickens.
The La Roda facility has 300 square meters divided into four spaces with a certain humidity and temperature. “The use of the soil is vertical, we can produce eight kilos of cricket meat in one cubic meter.” The company, which also helps to set up other similar farms, has now launched to market nachos made from cricket flour: “It is important to focus on making good-tasting products to break the visual barrier. Organic and vegan were also slow to catch on, and I think people will eventually get used to products made from insects as well.”
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