PNAS On The Eat Your Bugs Bandwagon

Looks like PNAS has gone wokey PC. An article (hard to call it science…) explaining how to fool people into eating insects. Does let you know that some Name Chefs are going to be working bugs into their food; and that some meat packers are going to start mixing it with their burgers & such.

And here I thought food inspection laws and inspectors were supposed to keep bugs OUT of the food…

Notice that it may not say “bugs” in the ingredients. You will need to know the names of a LOT of different bugs. Like “contains locust” … not to be confuse with the “Locust Bean Gum” you are already conditioned to accept as it isn’t a bug…

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2217537119

How to convince people to eat insects

Carolyn BeansAuthors Info & Affiliations
November 4, 2022
119 (46) e2217537119
[…]
Hargol, established in 2016, is the first company to raise a species of locust at commercial scale. Its products are primarily sold to other food producers. But it also sells finished products to consumers online through its sub-brand, Biblical Protein. Hargol’s chocolate protein shake mix pictures a chocolatey liquid pouring into a glass—no wings, legs, or antennae in sight. The company isn’t hiding the insects. (The bottom of the label clearly states: “Locust is a natural high protein source.”) But it also isn’t leading with them.

Further down:

Marketing as Usual
But before consumers feel compelled to grab a pack of dried crickets, companies will have to lure them in with advertisements. Researchers are still trying to understand the most effective approach. “Telling people that they should eat more insects because it’s good for them and/or good for the planet doesn’t seem to have much effect on behavior,” says experimental psychologist and gastrophysicist Charles Spence of the University of Oxford, UK.

Well duh… Oh, and watch out for those sauces… Will restaurants list all the bugs in their purchased sauces?

Yoon teaches people how to work insects into their kitchens, so they won’t be left disappointed. He explains, for example, that adding cricket powder to marinara sauce adds not only nutrition but umami. Mixing cricket powder and mushrooms with breadcrumbs and other ingredients creates meatballs with the right mouth-feel and texture.

May have to just choose your restaurants and flat out avoid any with bug-food in ANY product they sell. Otherwise you will be playing 20 Questions for hours going through the menu…

Oh, and anything with a Green “Helps Save The World” messaging is likely to be a problem, so just avoid all of them, too…

Hargol is working with processed meat producers in the United States, Canada, and Asia to develop products like burgers, meatballs, and sausage that will contain chicken, beef, or other protein sources combined with ground grasshopper. One company, Tamir says, is expected to launch the first such product in 2023.

Pointing to a picture of a chicken and grasshopper patty prototype, Tamir outlines Hargol’s selling points: It tastes better than other burgers because of this unique ingredient (which he leaves unnamed.) “And then we can explain, it is better for the environment, it is better for your health.”

Then there’s that whole problem of “lab escape”. What happens when these “specially bred” grasshoppers that eat “dry feed” escape into the wild, eh?

Tamir believes that his own company’s production costs will come down now that Hargol has bred grasshoppers that can survive on dry feed rather than fresh grass. “It reduces feed cost—the main cost driver—by 97 percent,” he says. “Once we implement that on the production lines, we will be more efficient than any other animal-based protein source out there.”

So what are the odds they will never ever have any of those escape? Then this Super Bug Grasshopper can survive and thrive on dry feed and survive better / longer in dry climates. Gives “Plague Of Locusts” a whole new wrinkle…

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