The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) approved on Wednesday the use of mealworms as food for human use, reports Agerpres. The larvae of the beetle popularly called "miller", and scientifically Tenebrio molitor, can be used as such or dried, as ingredients for curry or in the form of flour for the preparation of biscuits, pasta and bread.
"There is a great interest in the scientific community and in the food industry regarding the edible insects sector," emphasizes chemist Ermolaos Ververis, food specialist and EFSA representative. Before Europe joins this trend, the EFSA decision still needs to be ratified by the European Commission.
However, many sociologists believe that the psychological barriers in Europe are particularly strong, so it will take some time before worms are successfully sold on supermarket shelves. "There are cognitive explanations derived from our social and cultural experiences - the so-called 'yuck factor' (disgust factor) that make the idea of eating insects repugnant to many Europeans," says Giovanni Sogari, social and consumption researcher at University of Parma (Italy). "With time and with exposure, such attitudes can change", he believes.
EFSA said that since 2018 it had received 156 applications for the safety assessment of "novel foods", from some derived from algae to a wide range of insect species.
Insects, the future in terms of food
Just a few years ago, a UN agency announced that insects are the future of food, because they are nutritious and their growth pollutes less. If in some parts of the world the idea did not seem out of the ordinary, in Europe it was received with reluctance.
Mentalities are evolving, however, and in Finland, the Fazer company launched in November 2017, in a world premiere, bread with cricket dust, already available in supermarkets in this country. The insects are ground and added to the dough, so they cannot be seen or felt in the bread. Each loaf produced by the Fazer company contains about 70 crickets and costs 3,99 euros, compared to a loaf made only from wheat flour, which costs 2 or 3 euros. This bread "offers consumers a good source of protein, but also an easy way to get familiar with insect-based food," said Juhani Sibakov, Fazer's chief innovation officer.
"Crickets have a neutral taste, so they don't affect the taste of ordinary bread, but the nutritional value and protein content are very high. 70% of the cricket is protein, vitamins, iron and calcium", claims Noora Poyhonen, representative of the company.
