dried mealworms

       The mealworm market is expected to boom after the European Union ruled that mealworms can be eaten. Insects are a popular food in most countries, so will Europeans be able to cope with the nausea?
       A little… well, a little powdery. Dry (because it’s dried), a little crunchy, not very bright in taste, neither tasty nor unpleasant. Salt might help, or some chilli, lime – anything to give it a little heat. If I eat more, I always drink some beer to help with digestion.
       I eat mealworms. Mealworms are dried mealworms, the larvae of the Mealworm molitor beetle. Why? Because they are nutritious, made up mostly of protein, fat and fibre. Because of their potential environmental and economic benefits, they require less feed and produce less waste and carbon dioxide than other sources of animal protein. And the European Food Safety Authority (Efsa) has just declared them safe to eat.
       In fact, we already have some of them – a big bag. We take them out and feed them to the birds. Robin Batman especially likes them.
       There’s no getting around the fact that they do look like maggots, though, because they are maggots, and this is more of a bush experiment than a meal. So I thought maybe dipping them in melted chocolate would disguise them…
       Now they look like maggots dipped in chocolate, but at least they taste like chocolate. There’s a bit of texture, not unlike fruit and nuts. That’s when I saw the “Not for human consumption” label on the mealworms.
       Dried mealworms are dried mealworms, and if they hadn’t hurt little Batman, wouldn’t they have killed me? Better safe than sorry, though, so I ordered some ready-to-eat human-grade mealworms online from Crunchy Critters. Two 10g packs of mealworms cost £4.98 (or £249 per kilo), while half a kilo of mealworms, which we fed to the birds, cost £13.99.
       The breeding process involves separating the eggs from mating adults and then feeding the larvae grains such as oats or wheat bran and vegetables. When they are large enough, rinse them, pour boiling water over them and put them in the oven to dry. Or you can build your own mealworm farm and feed them oats and vegetables in a plastic container with a drawer. There are videos on YouTube that show how to do this; who wouldn’t want to build a small, multi-story larval factory in their home?
       In any case, the European Food Safety Authority’s opinion, which is expected to be approved across the EU and soon see bags of mealworms and worm meal appearing on supermarket shelves across the continent, is the result of a French company, Agronutris. The decision follows the European Food Safety Authority’s decision on an application from an insect food company. Several other insect food options are currently under consideration, including crickets, locusts and tiny mealworms (also called tiny beetles).
       It was already legal to sell insects as food to people in the UK even when we were still part of the EU – Crunchy Critters has been supplying insects since 2011 – but the EFSA ruling ends years of instability on the continent, and is expected to give a huge boost to the mealworm market.
       Wolfgang Gelbmann, senior scientist in the nutrition department at the European Food Safety Authority, explains the two questions the agency asks when reviewing new foods. “First, is it safe? Second, if it is introduced into our diet, will it have a negative impact on the diet of European consumers? The new food regulations do not require new products to be healthy – they are not intended to improve the health of European consumers’ diets – but they must not be worse than what we already eat.”
       While it is not EFSA’s responsibility to assess the nutritional value or economic and environmental benefits of mealworms, Gelbman said it would depend on how the mealworms are produced. “The more you produce, the lower the cost. It depends a lot on the feed you feed the animals, and the energy and water inputs.”
       Not only do insects emit less carbon dioxide than traditional livestock, they also require less water and land and are more efficient at converting feed into protein. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reports that crickets, for example, require only 2 kilograms of feed for every 1 kilogram of body weight gained.
       Gelbman doesn’t dispute the protein content of mealworms, but says it’s not as high in protein as meat, milk or eggs, “more like high-quality plant proteins like canola or soybeans.”
       Leo Taylor, co-founder of UK-based Bug, is a firm believer in the benefits of eating insects. The company plans to sell insect meal kits — creepy, ready-to-eat meals. “Raising mealworms can be more intensive than raising regular livestock,” Taylor said. “You can also feed them scraps of fruit and vegetables.”
       So, are insects actually tasty? “It depends on how you cook them. We think they’re tasty, and we’re not the only ones who think that. Eighty percent of the world’s population eats insects in some way or another – more than 2 billion people – and it’s not because they’re good to eat, it’s because they’re tasty. I’m half-Thai, grew up in Southeast Asia, and I ate insects as a kid.”
       He has a delicious recipe for Thai pumpkin soup with mealworms to enjoy when my mealworms are ready for human consumption. “This soup is so hearty and delicious for the season,” he says. It sounds great; I’m just wondering if my family will agree.
       Giovanni Sogari, a social and consumer behaviour researcher at the University of Parma who has published a book on edible insects, says the biggest obstacle is the disgust factor. “Insects have been eaten all over the world since the advent of humans; there are currently 2,000 species of insects considered edible. There is a disgust factor. We don’t want to eat them simply because we don’t think of them as food.”
       Sogari said research shows that if you’ve encountered edible insects while on holiday abroad, you’re more likely to try them again. Plus, people in Northern European countries are more likely to embrace insects than those in Mediterranean countries. Age also matters: Older people are less likely to try them. “If younger people start to like it, the market will grow,” he said. He noted that sushi is growing in popularity; if raw fish, caviar and seaweed can do it, “who knows, maybe insects can too.”
       “If I show you a picture of a scorpion or a lobster or some other crustacean, they’re not that different,” he notes. But feeding people is still easier if the insects are unrecognizable. Mealworms can be turned into flour, pasta, muffins, burgers, smoothies. I wonder if I should start with some of the less obvious larvae;
       These are mealworms, though, bought fresh off the internet for human consumption. Well, they were dried online and delivered to my doorstep. Much like birdseed. The taste was the same, which is to say not so good. Until now. But I’m going to make Leo Taylor’s Butternut Squash Soup with them, which is onion, garlic, a little green curry powder, coconut milk, broth, a little fish sauce, and lime. Half the mealworms I roasted in the oven with a little red curry paste and, since we didn’t have any Thai seasoning, I cooked them with the soup, and the rest I sprinkled with a little coriander and chilli.
       Did you know? This is actually pretty good. It’s very sour. You won’t know what’s going on in the soup, but think of all that wonderful extra protein. And the garnish gives it a little crunch and adds something new. I think I’ll use less coconut next time… if there is a next time. Let’s see. Dinner!
       “Ouch!” said the six- and eight-year-olds. “Bah!” “What…” “No way! There’s worse. Rioting, tantrums, crying, and empty stomachs. These little guys are probably too big for their feet. Maybe I should pretend they’re shrimp? Fair enough. They’re said to be a bit picky about food – even if a fish looks too much like a fish, they won’t eat it. We’ll have to start with pasta or hamburgers or muffins, or have a more elaborate party. . . Because Efsa No matter how safe they are, it looks like the unadventurous European family isn’t ready for mealworms.