Bugs Are Safe for Humans to Eat, Says EU

[Cooky]

Bugs Are Safe for Humans to Eat, Says EU
Insects are inching their way to becoming a menu item on European dining tables after the bloc’s food safety regulator approved mealworms as safe for human consumption.

Wednesday’s announcement means the grubs—actually beetle larvae—could soon be ground down and used as a protein-rich flour to make pasta and bread, or consumed whole in stir-frys and other recipes. The next steps involve getting marketing and labeling approvals

Does anyone else see this as kind of...Gross? ...To eat pasta or bread made of ground-up bugs?

 

[ADigitalArtist]

I don't see it as any grosser than eating crawfish and shrimp.

 

[Yerda]

Mate, people eat scorpions on a stick and stuff like that in lots of places. One of my friends taught English in China for a year and she said she'd see people munching bags of spiders on the bus and the like.

Gives me the baulk, but I'm sure it's safe enough.

 

[Cooky]

I don't see it as any grosser than eating crawfish and shrimp.

I don't eat crawfish or shrimp, for obvious reasons, but also for some unobvious ones -- one being I'm allergic to shrimp.

 

[Cooky]

Mate, people eat scorpions on a stick and stuff like that in lots of places. One of my friends taught English in China for a year and she said she'd see people munching bags of spiders on the bus and the like.

Gives me the baulk, but I'm sure it's safe enough.

Oh, man... Bags of spiders..? That's nasty.

 

[Onoma]

Good prison chow

 

[ADigitalArtist]

I don't eat crawfish or shrimp, for obvious reasons, but also for some unobvious ones -- one being I'm allergic to shrimp.

Even if you don't personally eat it, I'd be surprised if other people eating it grossed you out, despite being fairly similar to bugs. But maybe it does.
I think it's just a matter of what people are used to seeing. Americans eat a diet that's fairly... bland in a way I guess. Not a lot of organ meat and other things a lot of other cultures eat.
Heck, I go to Korean grocery stores to get chicken feet because it makes the best chicken stock you can get.

 

[Yerda]

 

[Cooky]

Even if you don't personally eat it, I'd be surprised if other people eating it grossed you out, despite being fairly similar to bugs. But maybe it does.
I think it's just a matter of what people are used to seeing. Americans eat a diet that's fairly... bland in a way I guess. Not a lot of organ meat and other things a lot of other cultures eat.
Heck, I go to Korean grocery stores to get chicken feet because it makes the best chicken stock you can get.

I ate pork tacos at a Mexican place one time, and the skin was still attached, and there were also thick chunks of skin just thrown in. I couldn't stomach it.

 

[Cooky]

Could you do it, Jaiket? I don't think I could.

 

[Yerda]

Could you do it, Jaiket? I don't think I could.

I'm vegetarian. No animals for me. But definitely not ones with an exoskeleton.

 

[Polymath257]

I don't eat crawfish or shrimp, for obvious reasons, but also for some unobvious ones -- one being I'm allergic to shrimp.

Crawfish and shrimp are delicious. But, don't eat them if you are allergic.

A good deal of our food preferences are based on training in early life. In particular, the feeling of disgust is a *learned* one. As such, it can be *unlearned*.

 

[JustGeorge]

I used to have a co worker that brought chocolate covered grasshoppers in all the time.

 

[Cooky]

I used to have a co worker that brought chocolate covered grasshoppers in all the time.

Those also have an exoskeleton. Must be crunchy.

 

[Cooky]

LOL, it reminds me of my daughters. One is so picky, we put crushed black pepper on her food one time and she literally started crying when she tasted it... She was 20 at the time.

 

[JustGeorge]

Those also have an exoskeleton. Must be crunchy.

View attachment 46936

They seemed crunchy. I didn't partake. He seemed to derive great joy from the discomfort of others, as he sat there munching them with a big smile.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Some bugs are ok, but spiders?

 

[stvdv]

Bugs Are Safe for Humans to Eat, Says EU
Insects are inching their way to becoming a menu item on European dining tables after the bloc’s food safety regulator approved mealworms as safe for human consumption.

Safe to eat is not the only issue here
They say "you become what you eat"

 

[Cooky]

Some bugs are ok, but spiders?

Haha, my wife is so paranoid of spiders, that when we go camping, at night, she walks with her arms swinging forward to feel for webs, in case she walks into one. If only she knew all along we could have eaten them, we could have had snacks.

 

[Cooky]

Safe to eat is not the only issue here
They say "you become what you eat"

Does that mean people who eat haggis are old hags?

...I'm thinking @Revoltingest..? So, yeaaahhh... That's a confirmation.