Insect delicacies: Organic, eco-friendly, and protein-rich

Insects are a staple part of our diet. Shocked? According to studies conducted in the USA, even pure vegetarians who avoid eggs consume around 750 grams of insects every year without realizing it. The insects find a way into body mainly through vegetables, rice, pasta, beer etc.

However, there are around 20 crore people in the world who willingly eat insects. It is believed that insects became part of human diet even before they started eating rice.

In south Asian countries and China, fried insects being sold by roadside is a common sight in the evenings. The savoury is prepared by applying various masalas and salt. Even in India, snacks made with insects are available in the village markets of North-Eastern states.

My introduction to insect cuisine took place ten years ago at an evening market in a small town in Thailand. The first delicacy that I bought was a packet of fried grasshoppers. A bystander advised me to try bamboo worm along with it. I bought that too. The price of the two packets together was 20 Bahts (Rs 40). It took me one hour to finish both the snacks. After the first tasting, I have made some progress enjoying insect delicacies in other parts of the globe.

According to the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), there are 1,462 edible insects on earth. During the last ten years, I have not been lucky to taste even one per cent of them!

Each insect has a different taste. For instance, fried silkworm tastes like popcorn. Savouries prepared with grasshoppers and locusts are similar to roasted peanuts. They can be prepared with salt, chilli powder or crushed lemon. However, it is better to avoid the grasshopper legs. Almost all insects living in water are edible, but lack taste.

Experts say that not all the insects commonly seen around you can be made into a dish. Those with dark colours, plenty of hair and the caterpillar of butterfly should be avoided, said a chef I met during an insect food festival in Mexico. Though the caterpillar of butterfly is not used as food, the larva of moths is a common snack. Other popular insect delicacies include bamboo worm in Asian countries and agave worm in Mexico.

Insects may soon become an important part of our diet, thanks to their high protein content and considering the ecological aspect. To explain matters, one has to only compare the amount of greenery consumed to produce 1 kilogram mutton-beef to an equal weight of insect protein. While 25 kg plants are consumed to produce 1 kg of mutton-beef, just 2 kg plants can form 1 kg of more nutritious insect protein.

There is also a humanitarian reason for insects to potentially become popular food. Insects do not have sense of pain. Yet another reason is that insect food is 100 % organic.

Several countries around the world have introduced programs to popularize insect cuisine. Numerous new dishes are being created for the purpose. Fried grasshoppers, bamboo worms, and silkworms are available in international markets in nitrogen-sealed packets. Chocolate bars with powdered grasshoppers as an ingredient can be bought from shops in Europe and America. The EXO grasshopper chocolate made in the USA has a standard of 40 grasshoppers in each bar.

We too can certainly try insect savouries. Grasshoppers, fried with salt and chilli powder, would make an ideal evening snack. Silkworms can be reared to prepare fries. The worms are used for food after the silk is separated from the cocoon. Local varieties of insect dishes can also be created afresh. For instance, ‘grasshopper paka vada’, silk worm dry fry with scraped coconut etc. would taste good.

Vegetarians need not be disappointed. For many reasons, they too can happily taste the insect delicacies.