Entomophagy
Encyclopedia
Entomophagy is the consumption of insect
s as food. Insects are eaten by many animals, but the term is generally used to refer to human consumption of insects; animals that eat insects are known as insectivore
s. There are also some species of carnivorous plants that derive nutrients from insects.
Human insect-eating is common in cultures in parts of the world, such as North
, Central
and South America
; and Africa
, Asia
, Australia
and New Zealand
. Over 1,000 insects are known to be eaten in 80% of the world's nations. However, in some societies insect-eating is uncommon or even taboo
. Today insect eating is rare in the developed world, but insects remain a popular food in many developing regions of Latin America
, Africa
, Asia
and Oceania
.
Some of the more popular insect and arachnids eaten around the world include cricket
s, cicadas, grasshopper
s, ant
s, a variety of beetle
grubs (such as mealworms), the larvae of the darkling beetle
or rhinoceros beetle
, a variety of species of caterpillar
(such as bamboo worms, mopani worms, silkworms and waxworm
s), scorpions and tarantula
s. Entomophagy is sometimes defined broadly to include the practice of eating arthropods that are not insects, such as arachnid
s (tarantula
s mainly) and myriapods (centipede
s mainly). There are 1,417 known species of arthropod
s, including arachnids, that are edible to humans. The term is not used for the consumption of other arthropods, specifically crustaceans like crabs, lobsters and shrimps.
and fungi that obtain their nutrition from insects are sometimes termed entomophagous
, especially in the context of biological control applications. These may also be more specifically classified into predators, parasites
or parasitoid
s, while virus
es, bacteria
and fungi that grow on or inside insects may also be termed "entomopathogenic". (See also Entomopathogenic fungi) In ecology
, feeding on insects is usually termed as insectivory
.
Before humans had tools to hunt or farm, insects may have represented an important part of their diet. Evidence has been found analyzing coprolites from caves in USA and Mexico. Coprolites in caves in the Ozark Mountains
were found to contain ants, beetle larvae, lice, ticks, and mites
. This is not unexpected, as there are some deep evolutionary precursors. Firstly, insectivory
also features to various degrees amongst primates, such as marmoset
s and tamarin
s, and indeed there is some suggestion that the earliest primates were nocturnal, arboreal insectivores. Also, most extant apes are, to a greater or lesser extent, insectivorous.
Cave paintings in Altamira
, north Spain, dated to about 30,000 to 9,000 BCE, depict the collection of wild bee nests. At the time people must have eaten bee pupae and larva
e with the honey. Cocoons of wild silkworm (Theophilia religiosae) were found in ruins in the Shanxi
province of China
, from 2,000 to 2,500 years B.C. The cocoons had large holes, suggesting the pupae were eaten. Many ancient entomophagy practices have been passed down to the present, forming traditional entomophagy.
ethnic groups. These include 235 species of butterflies and moths, 344 species of beetles, 313 species of ants, bees and wasps as well as 239 species of grasshoppers, crickets and cockroaches, amongst others. Other commonly eaten insects are termites, cicadas and dragonflies. Insects are known to be eaten in 80% of the world's nations.
The commercial exploitation of food insects has led to their decline in some places.
The consumption of Atta laevigata
is traditional in some regions of Colombia
and northeast Brazil
. In southern Africa, a species of moth called Gonimbrasia belina
is found throughout much of the region; its large caterpillar, the mopani or mopane worm, is a source of food protein
. In Australia, Witchetty grub
is considered a source of food amongst the Indigenous population.
Entomophagy has been featured on some reality television
shows, such as Fear Factor
. Barrington Hall, a former student cooperative
at U.C. Berkeley held an annual insect banquet for many years until the co-op was closed down in 1990. The New York Entomological Society held a Centennial Banquet on Wednesday, May 20, 1992 at the Explorers Club
in New York. The theme for the evening banquet was the use of insects as food. Appetizers and desserts featured insects in their preparations. The keynote speaker was Dr. Gene DeFoliart of the University of Wisconsin who is a leading authority on entomophagy. The Explorers Club
itself holds an annual dinner at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
featuring a wide array of unusual dishes including many featuring insects. Theme park operator Six Flags
Inc, based in New York, staged a contest as part of a promotion leading up to Halloween
in which it also offered customers free entry or line-jumping advantages if they ate a live Madagascar hissing cockroach
;
the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
(PETA) opposed the overall promotion.
"Insects do not deserve to be eaten alive especially for a gratuitous marketing gimmick," PETA spokeswoman Jackie Vergerio told Reuters.
, but also vitamins, minerals, and fats. For example, crickets are high in calcium
, and termites are rich in iron
. One hundred grams of giant silkworm moth larvae provide 100 percent of the daily requirements for copper, zinc, iron, thiamin, and riboflavin. Ants can also contain protein depending on the size of the insect. The smaller the species, the greater the chance of it containing minimal or no protein. Grubs of the sago palm weevil
(a staple in Papua New Guinea) are laden with unsaturated fat
. Many insects contain abundant stores of lysine
, an amino acid deficient in the diets of many people who depend heavily on grain.
as an ecologically sound concept. Minilivestocking suggests that a wide variety of small animals, including arthropods, be reared as nutritious food, the major advantage being that they do not have to be fed on grains thus saving many crop species for human consumption. It is also considered to be much more ecologically friendly than traditional livestocking.
Insects generally have a higher food conversion efficiency than more traditional meats, measured as efficiency of conversion of ingested food, or ECI
. While many insects can have an energy input to protein output ratio of around 4:1, raised livestock has a ratio closer to 54:1. This is partially due to the fact that feed first needs to be grown for most traditional livestock. Additionally endothermic
(warm-blooded) vertebrates need to use a significantly greater amount of energy just to stay warm whereas ectothermic (cold blooded) plants or insects do not. An index which can be used as a measure is the Efficiency of conversion of ingested food to body substance
: for example, only 10% of ingested food is converted to body substance by beef cattle
, versus 19–31% by silkworms and 44% by German cockroach
es. Studies concerning the house cricket (Acheta domesticus) provide further evidence for the efficiency of insects as a food source. When reared at 30°C or more and fed a diet of equal quality to the diet used to rear conventional livestock, crickets showed a food conversion twice as efficient as pigs and broiler chicks, four times that of sheep, and six times higher than steers (oxen) when losses in carcass trim and dressing percentage are counted.
Insects reproduce at a faster rate than beef animals. A female cricket can lay from 1,200 to 1,500 eggs in three to four weeks, while for beef the ratio is four breeding animals for each market animal produced. This gives house crickets a true food conversion efficiency almost 20 times higher than beef. For this reason and because of the essential amino acid
s content of insects, some people, on ecological
grounds, propose the development of entomophagy to provide a major source of protein
in human nutrition
. Protein production for human consumption would be more effective and consume fewer resources than vertebrate protein. This makes insect meat more ecological than vertebrate meat.
Insects have attractive qualities for food production besides their high energy efficiency. For example the spatial usage and water requirements are only a fraction of that required to produce the same mass of food with cattle farming. Production of 150g of grasshopper meat requires only very little water, while cattle requires 3290 liters to produce the same amount of beef.
, since parasites of concern may be present. But pesticide
use can make insects unsuitable for human consumption. Herbicides can accumulate in insects through bioaccumulation
. For example when locust
outbreaks are treated by spraying, people can no longer eat them. This may pose a problem since edible plants have been consumed by the locusts themselves.
Cases of lead poisoning after consumption of chapulines
were reported by the California Department of Health Services in November 2003. Adverse allergic reactions are also a possible hazard.
In the Carnia
region of Italy
, moth
s of the Zygaenidae
, known for manufacturing hydrogen cyanide precursor
s in their body, are eaten by children despite their toxicity. The moths concerned are from the brightly coloured day-flying genus Zygaena and its mimic, Syntomis. Cyanogenic glucosides were present in the larvae and imagos (adults) as well as in the ingluvies but in extremely low quantities along with sugar which is found in much higher concentrations. In early summer, Zygaena is very common and easy to catch by hand and the ingluvies serves as a convenient, supplementary source of sugar. Because the ingluvies have a very low cyanogenic content, children can include this resource as a seasonal delicacy at minimum risk.
culture, entomophagy (barring some food dyes) is seen as taboo
. There are some exceptions. Casu marzu
, for example, also called casu modde, casu cundhídu, or in Italian formaggio marcio, is a cheese made in Sardinia
notable for being riddled with live insect larvae. Casu marzu means "rotten cheese" in Sardinian
and is known colloquially as maggot cheese. A scene in the Italian
film
Mondo Cane
(1962) features an insect banquet for shock effect. Western avoidance of entomophagy coexists with the consumption of other invertebrates such as crustacean
s and mollusks, and is not based on taste or food value.
Within Judaism, most insects are not considered kosher
, with only a few species of locust being accepted by certain communities (see Kosher locust
). Honey is, however, considered kosher. Some schools of the Islam considers scorpions unclean, but locust consumption is accepted; other prohibit all animals that creep, including insects.
The anthropologist Marvin Harris
has suggested that the eating of insects is taboo in cultures that have other protein sources that require less work to obtain, such as poultry or cattle, though there are cultures which feature both animal husbandry
and entomophagy. Examples can be found in Botswana
, South Africa
and Zimbabwe
where strong cattle-raising traditions co-exist with entomophagy of insects like the mopane worm
.
oryzae) larvae, and this has been suggested as an important source of vitamins.
The Food and Agricultural Organisation specifies in the Codex Alimentarius
standard for wheat (Codex Standard 152-1985 :
Codex Standard for Wheat Flour) that :
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's The Food Defect Action Levels
booklet. Contamination on the average of 150 or more insect fragments per 100 grams of wheat flour, or below poses no health hazard.
Other example of the maximum permissible levels of insect contamination in food products for humans, contamination below which level, poses no health hazard, are:
See source for information on other food products.
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s as food. Insects are eaten by many animals, but the term is generally used to refer to human consumption of insects; animals that eat insects are known as insectivore
Insectivore
An insectivore is a type of carnivore with a diet that consists chiefly of insects and similar small creatures. An alternate term is entomophage, which also refers to the human practice of eating insects....
s. There are also some species of carnivorous plants that derive nutrients from insects.
Human insect-eating is common in cultures in parts of the world, such as North
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, Central
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
; and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. Over 1,000 insects are known to be eaten in 80% of the world's nations. However, in some societies insect-eating is uncommon or even taboo
Taboo food and drink
Taboo food and drink are food and beverages which people abstain from consuming for religious, cultural or hygienic reasons. Many food taboos forbid the meat of a particular animal, including mammals, rodents, reptiles, amphibians, bony fish, and crustaceans...
. Today insect eating is rare in the developed world, but insects remain a popular food in many developing regions of Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
and Oceania
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
.
Some of the more popular insect and arachnids eaten around the world include cricket
Cricket (insect)
Crickets, family Gryllidae , are insects somewhat related to grasshoppers, and more closely related to katydids or bush crickets . They have somewhat flattened bodies and long antennae. There are about 900 species of crickets...
s, cicadas, grasshopper
Grasshopper
The grasshopper is an insect of the suborder Caelifera in the order Orthoptera. To distinguish it from bush crickets or katydids, it is sometimes referred to as the short-horned grasshopper...
s, ant
Ant
Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than...
s, a variety of beetle
Beetle
Coleoptera is an order of insects commonly called beetles. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek , koleos, "sheath"; and , pteron, "wing", thus "sheathed wing". Coleoptera contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms...
grubs (such as mealworms), the larvae of the darkling beetle
Darkling beetle
Darkling beetles are a family of beetles found worldwide, estimated at more than 20,000 species. Many of the beetles have black elytra, leading to their common name...
or rhinoceros beetle
Rhinoceros beetle
The Rhinoceros Beetles or Rhino Beetles are a subfamily of the scarab beetle family . Other common names – some for particular groups of rhino beetles – are for example Hercules beetles, unicorn beetles or horn beetles...
, a variety of species of caterpillar
Caterpillar
Caterpillars are the larval form of members of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly herbivorous in food habit, although some species are insectivorous. Caterpillars are voracious feeders and many of them are considered to be pests in agriculture...
(such as bamboo worms, mopani worms, silkworms and waxworm
Waxworm
Waxworms are the caterpillar larvae of wax moths, which belong to the snout moth family . Two closely related species are commercially bred – the lesser wax moth and the greater wax moth...
s), scorpions and tarantula
Tarantula
Tarantulas comprise a group of often hairy and often very large arachnids belonging to the family Theraphosidae, of which approximately 900 species have been identified. Some members of the same Suborder may also be called "tarantulas" in the common parlance. This article will restrict itself to...
s. Entomophagy is sometimes defined broadly to include the practice of eating arthropods that are not insects, such as arachnid
Arachnid
Arachnids are a class of joint-legged invertebrate animals in the subphylum Chelicerata. All arachnids have eight legs, although in some species the front pair may convert to a sensory function. The term is derived from the Greek words , meaning "spider".Almost all extant arachnids are terrestrial...
s (tarantula
Tarantula
Tarantulas comprise a group of often hairy and often very large arachnids belonging to the family Theraphosidae, of which approximately 900 species have been identified. Some members of the same Suborder may also be called "tarantulas" in the common parlance. This article will restrict itself to...
s mainly) and myriapods (centipede
Centipede
Centipedes are arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda of the subphylum Myriapoda. They are elongated metameric animals with one pair of legs per body segment. Despite the name, centipedes can have a varying number of legs from under 20 to over 300. Centipedes have an odd number of pairs of...
s mainly). There are 1,417 known species of arthropod
Arthropod
An arthropod is an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton , a segmented body, and jointed appendages. Arthropods are members of the phylum Arthropoda , and include the insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and others...
s, including arachnids, that are edible to humans. The term is not used for the consumption of other arthropods, specifically crustaceans like crabs, lobsters and shrimps.
Other usage
Insects, nematodesEntomopathogenic nematode
Entomopathogenic nematodes are soil-inhabiting, lethal insect parasitoids that belong to the phylum Nematoda, commonly called roundworms. The term entomopathogenic comes from the Greek word entomon, meaning insect, and pathogenic, which means causing disease...
and fungi that obtain their nutrition from insects are sometimes termed entomophagous
Entomophagous parasite
Entomophagous parasites are insects that are parasitic on other insects. Nearly all insects are attacked by one or more insect parasites. This parasitic mode of life is most often confined to the larvae with the adults usually leading free lives...
, especially in the context of biological control applications. These may also be more specifically classified into predators, parasites
Parasitism
Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between organisms of different species where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host. Traditionally parasite referred to organisms with lifestages that needed more than one host . These are now called macroparasites...
or parasitoid
Parasitoid
A parasitoid is an organism that spends a significant portion of its life history attached to or within a single host organism in a relationship that is in essence parasitic; unlike a true parasite, however, it ultimately sterilises or kills, and sometimes consumes, the host...
s, while virus
Virus
A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...
es, bacteria
Bacteria
Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...
and fungi that grow on or inside insects may also be termed "entomopathogenic". (See also Entomopathogenic fungi) In ecology
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
, feeding on insects is usually termed as insectivory
Insectivore
An insectivore is a type of carnivore with a diet that consists chiefly of insects and similar small creatures. An alternate term is entomophage, which also refers to the human practice of eating insects....
.
History
The Ozarks
The Ozarks are a physiographic and geologic highland region of the central United States. It covers much of the southern half of Missouri and an extensive portion of northwestern and north central Arkansas...
were found to contain ants, beetle larvae, lice, ticks, and mites
MITES
MITES, or Minority Introduction to Engineering and Science, is a highly selective six-week summer program for rising high school seniors held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Its purpose is to expose students from minority, or otherwise disadvantaged backgrounds, to the fields of...
. This is not unexpected, as there are some deep evolutionary precursors. Firstly, insectivory
Insectivore
An insectivore is a type of carnivore with a diet that consists chiefly of insects and similar small creatures. An alternate term is entomophage, which also refers to the human practice of eating insects....
also features to various degrees amongst primates, such as marmoset
Marmoset
Marmosets are the 22 New World monkey species of the genera Callithrix, Cebuella, Callibella, and Mico. All four genera are part of the biological family Callitrichidae. The term marmoset is also used in reference to the Goeldi's Monkey, Callimico goeldii, which is closely related.Most marmosets...
s and tamarin
Tamarin
The tamarins are squirrel-sized New World monkeys from the family Callitrichidae in the genus Saguinus. They are closely related to the lion tamarins in the genus Leontopithecus.- Range :...
s, and indeed there is some suggestion that the earliest primates were nocturnal, arboreal insectivores. Also, most extant apes are, to a greater or lesser extent, insectivorous.
Cave paintings in Altamira
Altamira
-Places:*Cave of Altamira, a cave in Cantabria, Spain famous for its paintings and carving*Altamira, Brazil, a city in the state of Pará*Altamira, Huila, a town and municipality in Colombia*Altamira, Puerto Plata, a town in the Dominican Republic...
, north Spain, dated to about 30,000 to 9,000 BCE, depict the collection of wild bee nests. At the time people must have eaten bee pupae and larva
Larva
A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...
e with the honey. Cocoons of wild silkworm (Theophilia religiosae) were found in ruins in the Shanxi
Shanxi
' is a province in Northern China. Its one-character abbreviation is "晋" , after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring and Autumn Period....
province of China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, from 2,000 to 2,500 years B.C. The cocoons had large holes, suggesting the pupae were eaten. Many ancient entomophagy practices have been passed down to the present, forming traditional entomophagy.
Current examples
Entomophagy can be divided into two categories: insects used as a source of nutrients and insects as condiments. Some insects are eaten as larvae or pupae, others as adults. Though not insects, arachnids such as spiders, tarantulas and scorpions are also eaten. A total of 1417 species of insects have been recorded as being eaten by over 3000ethnic groups. These include 235 species of butterflies and moths, 344 species of beetles, 313 species of ants, bees and wasps as well as 239 species of grasshoppers, crickets and cockroaches, amongst others. Other commonly eaten insects are termites, cicadas and dragonflies. Insects are known to be eaten in 80% of the world's nations.
The commercial exploitation of food insects has led to their decline in some places.
The consumption of Atta laevigata
Atta laevigata
Atta laevigata is one of about a dozen species of leafcutter ants in the genus Atta, found from Colombia south to Paraguay. This species is one of the largest leafcutter species, and can be recognized by the smooth and shining head of the largest workers in a colony...
is traditional in some regions of Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
and northeast Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. In southern Africa, a species of moth called Gonimbrasia belina
Gonimbrasia belina
Gonimbrasia belina is a species of moth found in much of Southern Africa, whose large edible caterpillar, the mopani or mopane worm, is an important source of protein for millions of indigenous Southern Africans.-Vernacular names:...
is found throughout much of the region; its large caterpillar, the mopani or mopane worm, is a source of food protein
Protein
Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...
. In Australia, Witchetty grub
Witchetty grub
The witchetty grub is a term used in Australia for the large, white, wood-eating larvae of several moths...
is considered a source of food amongst the Indigenous population.
Entomophagy has been featured on some reality television
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
shows, such as Fear Factor
Fear Factor
Fear Factor is an American stunt/dare reality game show. The original Dutch version was called Now or Neverland. When Endemol USA and NBC adapted it to the American market in 2001, they changed the name to Fear Factor. The show pits contestants against each other in a variety of stunts for a...
. Barrington Hall, a former student cooperative
Student housing cooperative
A student housing cooperative, also known as co-operative housing, is a housing cooperative for students in an educational institution.Unlike a resident who acquires shares at market rates to earn the right to occupy a specific apartment on a permanent basis , a resident of a student co-op acquires...
at U.C. Berkeley held an annual insect banquet for many years until the co-op was closed down in 1990. The New York Entomological Society held a Centennial Banquet on Wednesday, May 20, 1992 at the Explorers Club
The Explorers Club
The Explorers Club is a professional society dedicated to scientific exploration of Earth, its oceans, and outer space. Founded in 1904 in New York City, it currently has 30 branches world wide...
in New York. The theme for the evening banquet was the use of insects as food. Appetizers and desserts featured insects in their preparations. The keynote speaker was Dr. Gene DeFoliart of the University of Wisconsin who is a leading authority on entomophagy. The Explorers Club
The Explorers Club
The Explorers Club is a professional society dedicated to scientific exploration of Earth, its oceans, and outer space. Founded in 1904 in New York City, it currently has 30 branches world wide...
itself holds an annual dinner at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
The Waldorf-Astoria is a luxury hotel in New York. It has been housed in two historic landmark buildings in New York City. The first, designed by architect Henry J. Hardenbergh, was on the Fifth Avenue site of the Empire State Building. The present building at 301 Park Avenue in Manhattan is a...
featuring a wide array of unusual dishes including many featuring insects. Theme park operator Six Flags
Six Flags
Six Flags Entertainment Corp. is the world's largest amusement park corporation based on quantity of properties and the fifth most popular in terms of attendance. The company maintains 14 properties located throughout North America, including theme parks, thrill parks, water parks and family...
Inc, based in New York, staged a contest as part of a promotion leading up to Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
in which it also offered customers free entry or line-jumping advantages if they ate a live Madagascar hissing cockroach
Madagascar hissing cockroach
The Madagascar hissing Cockroach , also known as the Hissing Cockroach or simply Hisser, is one of the largest species of cockroach, reaching 2–4 inches at maturity. They are from the island of Madagascar off the African coast, where they can be found in rotting logs.Unlike most cockroaches, they...
;
the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is an American animal rights organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. A non-profit corporation with 300 employees and two million members and supporters, it claims to be the largest animal rights...
(PETA) opposed the overall promotion.
"Insects do not deserve to be eaten alive especially for a gratuitous marketing gimmick," PETA spokeswoman Jackie Vergerio told Reuters.
Advantages
Insects can be a good source of not only proteinProtein
Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...
, but also vitamins, minerals, and fats. For example, crickets are high in calcium
Calcium
Calcium is the chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. It has an atomic mass of 40.078 amu. Calcium is a soft gray alkaline earth metal, and is the fifth-most-abundant element by mass in the Earth's crust...
, and termites are rich in iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
. One hundred grams of giant silkworm moth larvae provide 100 percent of the daily requirements for copper, zinc, iron, thiamin, and riboflavin. Ants can also contain protein depending on the size of the insect. The smaller the species, the greater the chance of it containing minimal or no protein. Grubs of the sago palm weevil
Sago worm
The Sago worm or Sago grub is the larva of the Sago Palm Weevil or Red Palm Weevil .-Overview:The worm lives and feeds on the starchy pulp of the trunk of the sago palm , which is common in the wetter freshwater swampy parts of Southeast Asia and Melanesia...
(a staple in Papua New Guinea) are laden with unsaturated fat
Unsaturated fat
An unsaturated fat is a fat or fatty acid in which there is at least one double bond within the fatty acid chain. A fat molecule is monounsaturated if it contains one double bond, and polyunsaturated if it contains more than one double bond. Where double bonds are formed, hydrogen atoms are...
. Many insects contain abundant stores of lysine
Lysine
Lysine is an α-amino acid with the chemical formula HO2CCH4NH2. It is an essential amino acid, which means that the human body cannot synthesize it. Its codons are AAA and AAG....
, an amino acid deficient in the diets of many people who depend heavily on grain.
Minilivestock
The intentional cultivation of arthropods for human food, referred to as minilivestock, is now emerging in animal husbandryAnimal husbandry
Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.- History :Animal husbandry has been practiced for thousands of years, since the first domestication of animals....
as an ecologically sound concept. Minilivestocking suggests that a wide variety of small animals, including arthropods, be reared as nutritious food, the major advantage being that they do not have to be fed on grains thus saving many crop species for human consumption. It is also considered to be much more ecologically friendly than traditional livestocking.
Insects generally have a higher food conversion efficiency than more traditional meats, measured as efficiency of conversion of ingested food, or ECI
Efficiency of conversion
The efficiency of conversion of ingested food to unit of body substance is an index measure of food fuel efficiency in animals. The ECI is a rough scale of how much of the food ingested is converted into growth in the animal's mass...
. While many insects can have an energy input to protein output ratio of around 4:1, raised livestock has a ratio closer to 54:1. This is partially due to the fact that feed first needs to be grown for most traditional livestock. Additionally endothermic
Endothermic
In thermodynamics, the word endothermic describes a process or reaction in which the system absorbs energy from the surroundings in the form of heat. Its etymology stems from the prefix endo- and the Greek word thermasi,...
(warm-blooded) vertebrates need to use a significantly greater amount of energy just to stay warm whereas ectothermic (cold blooded) plants or insects do not. An index which can be used as a measure is the Efficiency of conversion of ingested food to body substance
Efficiency of conversion
The efficiency of conversion of ingested food to unit of body substance is an index measure of food fuel efficiency in animals. The ECI is a rough scale of how much of the food ingested is converted into growth in the animal's mass...
: for example, only 10% of ingested food is converted to body substance by beef cattle
Beef cattle
Beef cattle are cattle raised for meat production . The meat of cattle is known as beef. When raised in a feedlot cattle are known as feeder cattle. Many such feeder cattle are born in cow-calf operations specifically designed to produce beef calves...
, versus 19–31% by silkworms and 44% by German cockroach
German cockroach
The German cockroach is a small species of cockroach, measuring about to long; however, they are known to get bigger. It can be tan through brown to almost black, and has two dark parallel streaks running from the head to the base of the wings. Although it has wings, it is unable to sustain flight...
es. Studies concerning the house cricket (Acheta domesticus) provide further evidence for the efficiency of insects as a food source. When reared at 30°C or more and fed a diet of equal quality to the diet used to rear conventional livestock, crickets showed a food conversion twice as efficient as pigs and broiler chicks, four times that of sheep, and six times higher than steers (oxen) when losses in carcass trim and dressing percentage are counted.
Essential amino acid
An essential amino acid or indispensable amino acid is an amino acid that cannot be synthesized de novo by the organism , and therefore must be supplied in the diet.-Essentiality vs. conditional essentiality in humans:...
s content of insects, some people, on ecological
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
grounds, propose the development of entomophagy to provide a major source of protein
Protein
Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...
in human nutrition
Nutrition
Nutrition is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet....
. Protein production for human consumption would be more effective and consume fewer resources than vertebrate protein. This makes insect meat more ecological than vertebrate meat.
Insects have attractive qualities for food production besides their high energy efficiency. For example the spatial usage and water requirements are only a fraction of that required to produce the same mass of food with cattle farming. Production of 150g of grasshopper meat requires only very little water, while cattle requires 3290 liters to produce the same amount of beef.
Toxicity
In general, many insects are herbivorous and less problematic than omnivores. Cooking is advisable, ceteris paribusCeteris paribus
or is a Latin phrase, literally translated as "with other things the same," or "all other things being equal or held constant." It is an example of an ablative absolute and is commonly rendered in English as "all other things being equal." A prediction, or a statement about causal or logical...
, since parasites of concern may be present. But pesticide
Pesticide
Pesticides are substances or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest.A pesticide may be a chemical unicycle, biological agent , antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest...
use can make insects unsuitable for human consumption. Herbicides can accumulate in insects through bioaccumulation
Bioaccumulation
Bioaccumulation refers to the accumulation of substances, such as pesticides, or other organic chemicals in an organism. Bioaccumulation occurs when an organism absorbs a toxic substance at a rate greater than that at which the substance is lost...
. For example when locust
Locust
Locusts are the swarming phase of short-horned grasshoppers of the family Acrididae. These are species that can breed rapidly under suitable conditions and subsequently become gregarious and migratory...
outbreaks are treated by spraying, people can no longer eat them. This may pose a problem since edible plants have been consumed by the locusts themselves.
Cases of lead poisoning after consumption of chapulines
Chapulines
Chapulines, plural for chapulín, are grasshoppers of the genus Sphenarium, that are commonly eaten in certain areas of Mexico. The term is specific to Mexico and derives from the Nahuatl language...
were reported by the California Department of Health Services in November 2003. Adverse allergic reactions are also a possible hazard.
In the Carnia
Carnia
Carnia is a historical-geographic region of Friuli, whose municipalities all belong to the province of Udine, which is part of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region.It covers the western and central part of the mountainous region of the Province of Udine...
region of Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, moth
Moth
A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...
s of the Zygaenidae
Zygaenidae
The Zygaenidae moths are a family of Lepidoptera. The majority of zygaenids are tropical, but they are nevertheless quite well represented in temperate regions. There are about 1000 species. Various species are commonly known as Burnet or Forester moths, often qualified by the number of spots,...
, known for manufacturing hydrogen cyanide precursor
Precursor (chemistry)
In chemistry, a precursor is a compound that participates in the chemical reaction that produces another compound. In biochemistry, the term "precursor" is used more specifically to refer to a chemical compound preceding another in a metabolic pathway....
s in their body, are eaten by children despite their toxicity. The moths concerned are from the brightly coloured day-flying genus Zygaena and its mimic, Syntomis. Cyanogenic glucosides were present in the larvae and imagos (adults) as well as in the ingluvies but in extremely low quantities along with sugar which is found in much higher concentrations. In early summer, Zygaena is very common and easy to catch by hand and the ingluvies serves as a convenient, supplementary source of sugar. Because the ingluvies have a very low cyanogenic content, children can include this resource as a seasonal delicacy at minimum risk.
Cultural taboo
Within WesternWestern world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
culture, entomophagy (barring some food dyes) is seen as taboo
Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
. There are some exceptions. Casu marzu
Casu marzu
Casu marzu is a traditional Sardinian sheep milk cheese, notable for containing live insect larvae...
, for example, also called casu modde, casu cundhídu, or in Italian formaggio marcio, is a cheese made in Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
notable for being riddled with live insect larvae. Casu marzu means "rotten cheese" in Sardinian
Sardinian language
Sardinian is a Romance language spoken and written on most of the island of Sardinia . It is considered the most conservative of the Romance languages in terms of phonology and is noted for its Paleosardinian substratum....
and is known colloquially as maggot cheese. A scene in the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
Mondo Cane
Mondo cane
Mondo cane is a documentary written and directed by Italian filmmakers Paolo Cavara, Franco Prosperi and Gualtiero Jacopetti. The film consists of a series of travelogue vignettes that provide glimpses into cultural practices around the world with the intention to shock or surprise Western film...
(1962) features an insect banquet for shock effect. Western avoidance of entomophagy coexists with the consumption of other invertebrates such as crustacean
Crustacean
Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...
s and mollusks, and is not based on taste or food value.
Within Judaism, most insects are not considered kosher
Kashrut
Kashrut is the set of Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with halakha is termed kosher in English, from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the Hebrew term kashér , meaning "fit" Kashrut (also kashruth or kashrus) is the set of Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with halakha (Jewish law) is termed...
, with only a few species of locust being accepted by certain communities (see Kosher locust
Kosher locust
While most insects are considered to be forbidden by Kosher dietary laws, four varieties of locust are listed in the Torah as permissible. However, the identities of the four varieties are not completely clear.- Source in the Torah :...
). Honey is, however, considered kosher. Some schools of the Islam considers scorpions unclean, but locust consumption is accepted; other prohibit all animals that creep, including insects.
The anthropologist Marvin Harris
Marvin Harris
Marvin Harris was an American anthropologist. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. A prolific writer, he was highly influential in the development of cultural materialism...
has suggested that the eating of insects is taboo in cultures that have other protein sources that require less work to obtain, such as poultry or cattle, though there are cultures which feature both animal husbandry
Animal husbandry
Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.- History :Animal husbandry has been practiced for thousands of years, since the first domestication of animals....
and entomophagy. Examples can be found in Botswana
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
and Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
where strong cattle-raising traditions co-exist with entomophagy of insects like the mopane worm
Gonimbrasia belina
Gonimbrasia belina is a species of moth found in much of Southern Africa, whose large edible caterpillar, the mopani or mopane worm, is an important source of protein for millions of indigenous Southern Africans.-Vernacular names:...
.
Unintentional ingestion
In practice, it is not possible to eliminate pest insects from the human food chain. Insects are present in many foods, especially grains. Food laws in many countries do not prohibit insect parts in food, but rather, they limit the quantity. People in rice-eating regions, for example, typically ingest significant numbers of rice weevil (SitophilusSitophilus
Sitophilus is a cosmopolitan genus of weevils found on rice, maize and tamarind. It has also been found on Chickpea.Notable species, the Rice weevil, S. oryzae and the Maize weevil both damage a variety of standing crops, and other stored cereals.-Distribution:The two species, Sitophilus oryzae...
oryzae) larvae, and this has been suggested as an important source of vitamins.
The Food and Agricultural Organisation specifies in the Codex Alimentarius
Codex Alimentarius
The Codex Alimentarius is a collection of internationally recognized standards, codes of practice, guidelines and other recommendations relating to foods, food production and food safety. Its name derives from the Codex Alimentarius Austriacus...
standard for wheat (Codex Standard 152-1985 :
Codex Standard for Wheat Flour) that :
3.1.2 Wheat flour shall be free from abnormal flavours, odours, and living insects.
3.1.3 Wheat flour shall be free from filth (impurities of animal origin, including dead insects) in amounts which may represent a hazard to human health.
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's The Food Defect Action Levels
The Food Defect Action Levels
The Food Defect Action Levels: Levels of natural or unavoidable defects in foods that present no health hazards for humans is a publication of the United States Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition detailing acceptable levels of food contamination from sources...
booklet. Contamination on the average of 150 or more insect fragments per 100 grams of wheat flour, or below poses no health hazard.
Other example of the maximum permissible levels of insect contamination in food products for humans, contamination below which level, poses no health hazard, are:
| Product | Type of insect contamination | Maximum Permissible Level |
|---|---|---|
| Canned sweet corn | Insect larvae (corn ear worms Helicoverpa zea The larva of the moth Helicoverpa zea is a major agricultural pest. It can feed on many different plants during the larval stage. Accordingly, the species has been given many different common names. When the larva consumes cotton, it is known as the cotton bollworm... or corn borers) |
2 or more 3 mm or longer larvae, cast skins, larval or cast skin fragments, the aggregate length of insects or insect parts exceeds 12 mm in 24 pounds |
| Canned citrus Citrus Citrus is a common term and genus of flowering plants in the rue family, Rutaceae. Citrus is believed to have originated in the part of Southeast Asia bordered by Northeastern India, Myanmar and the Yunnan province of China... fruit juices |
Insects and insect eggs | 5 or more Drosophila and other fly eggs per 250 ml or 1 or more maggots per 250 ml |
| Wheat Wheat Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice... flour Flour Flour is a powder which is made by grinding cereal grains, other seeds or roots . It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cultures, making the availability of adequate supplies of flour a major economic and political issue at various times throughout history... |
Insect filth | Average of 150 or more insect fragments per 100 grams |
| Frozen broccoli Broccoli Broccoli is a plant in the cabbage family, whose large flower head is used as a vegetable.-General:The word broccoli, from the Italian plural of , refers to "the flowering top of a cabbage".... |
Insects and mites | Average of 60 or more aphids and/or thrips and/or mites per 100 grams |
| Hops Hops Hops are the female flower clusters , of a hop species, Humulus lupulus. They are used primarily as a flavoring and stability agent in beer, to which they impart a bitter, tangy flavor, though hops are also used for various purposes in other beverages and herbal medicine... |
Insects | Average of more than 2,500 aphids per 10 grams |
| Ground thyme Thyme Thyme is a culinary and medicinal herb of the genus Thymus.-History:Ancient Egyptians used thyme for embalming. The ancient Greeks used it in their baths and burnt it as incense in their temples, believing it was a source of courage... |
Insect filth | Average of 925 or more insect fragments per 10 grams |
| Ground nutmeg Nutmeg The nutmeg tree is any of several species of trees in genus Myristica. The most important commercial species is Myristica fragrans, an evergreen tree indigenous to the Banda Islands in the Moluccas of Indonesia... |
Insect filth | Average of 100 or more insect fragments per 10 grams |
See source for information on other food products.
See also
- Taboo food and drinkTaboo food and drinkTaboo food and drink are food and beverages which people abstain from consuming for religious, cultural or hygienic reasons. Many food taboos forbid the meat of a particular animal, including mammals, rodents, reptiles, amphibians, bony fish, and crustaceans...
- The Eat-A-Bug CookbookThe Eat-A-Bug Cookbook-Book summary:The book has recipes that are organized by bug and it says how to store the insects. Some of the insects are crickets, grasshoppers, locusts, termites, ants, and bees. There is also a list of references, places to purchase insects, and organizations that put on insect events at which...
(book) - EthnoentomologyEthnoentomologyEthnoentomology is the study of the relationship between insects and people. The name is derived from "ethno" - study of people and "entomology" - study of insects. The focus of ethnoentomology is on how insects have been or are being used in human societies around the world...
- Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating InsectsMan Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating InsectsMan Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects is a non-fiction book by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Alusio.-Book summary:The authors traveled to 13 countries to taste insects. The book talks about eating insects and how to harvest them. The insects in the book include Theraphosa blondi ,...
(book) - The Food Defect Action LevelsThe Food Defect Action LevelsThe Food Defect Action Levels: Levels of natural or unavoidable defects in foods that present no health hazards for humans is a publication of the United States Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition detailing acceptable levels of food contamination from sources...
Further reading
- Taylor, Ronald L. (1976) Butterflies in My Stomach, Woodbridge Press Publishing Co., ISBN 0912800089
- Holt, VincentVincent M. HoltVincent M. Holt was the author of an 1885 manifesto, titled Why Not Eat Insects? that laid out the arguments in favor of eating insects.He argued against eating lobsters...
. Why Not Eat Insects? 1885 Pamphlet Full text of the 1885 pamphlet Why Not Eat Insects by Vincent Holt, with French cuisine recipes - Sri Kantha, S. Insect eating in Japan. Nature, Nov. 24, 1988; 336: 316–317.
- Ichinose, K. More insect eating. Nature, Feb. 9, 1989; 337: 513–514.
- DeFoliart, G. Insects as human food. Crop Protection, 1992; 11: 395–399.
External links
- "Man Bites Insect" by Sam Nejame New York Times Sunday Magazine February 10, 2008:
- "Girl Meets Bug" - Daniella Martin
- Marcel Dicke. "Why not eat insects?", TEDTED (conference)TED is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading"....
xAmsterdam. Retrieved 12 March 2011.