More cricket powder, please!

Available in most foods in Europe. From now on.

Author

Lauren Klafke
February 13, 2023

The Scoop (of bugs)

If there was any chance of me going to Europe up to this point in my life, it's gone.

Why, you ask?

As of the end of January 2023, the EU has now legalized crickets as a mainstream and acceptable form of protein. For humans. "Sustainable source of protein", they say.

Oh, you don't believe me? Ok.

In the Official Journal of the European Union, they say here that "partially defatted powder obtained from whole Acheta domesticus (house cricket) to be used in multigrain bread and rolls, crackers and breadsticks, cereal bars, dry pre-mixes for baked products, biscuits, dry stuffed and non-stuffed pasta-based products, sauces, processed potato products, legume- and vegetable- based dishes, pizza, pasta-based products, whey powder, meat analogues, soups and soup concentrates or powders, maize flour-based snacks, beer-like beverages, chocolate confectionary, nuts and oilseeds, snacks other than chips, and meat preparations, intended for the general population".

So basically, everything in the middle aisles of the grocery stores.

Cool, cool. Love that for Europe.

Will I Know I'm Eating Crickets?

Great question. The official documentation referenced says that there will need to be an allergen statement next to the ingredients. But it won’t say “contains crickets”. It will be more sneaky, using allergen terms like shellfish, mollusks, or dust mites (ew).

How Can I Not Eat Bugs?

Whole foods. Not the store, the concept. One-ingredient foods that don’t have a label are probably your best bet. And if you really want to be certain, you can mill your own flour (this is not as pioneer as it sounds, check the appliance below).

I’m not in Europe, should I care?

If you think Europe is the only place talking about “sustainable protein”, you’re asleep. Wake up. Crickets are already being sold as health food here in the US. They are putting mealworms and crickets in ice cream in San Fran (see article below if you don’t believe me) and it won’t be long before the fad creeps and crawls into food regulation, being added to our staples without our knowledge.

Eating Insects is the Past, Present, and Future

Every October the air gets crisp, the leaves change colors, and we launch our highly anticipated Halloween Series. Each flavor represents a spine-chilling spirit of the season—from unloading a trick-or-treat bag filled with candy bars into a butterscotch ice cream to concocting a witches’ brew that tastes just like bubblegum. One of our longest standing flavors on this menu is Don Bugito’s Creepy Crawly Critters, in which the sensation of bugs crawling across your skin is translated by way of toffee-brittle mealworms and chocolate covered crickets tossed in a matcha ice cream. Yes, real bugs. And listen, we get it—insects get a bad rep. But our friend, and founder of Don Bugito, Monica Martinez, is on a mission to change how the world sees (and eats) insects…one mealworm at a time. Entomophagy, the art of eating insects, existed long before cows, chickens, and pigs in North America. A staple in Mexican Prehispanic cuisine, insects—high in protein, omega 3s, fiber, and amino acids—proved a vital food source for the Aztecs. Growing up in Mexico, Martinez was introduced to these ancestral traditions by her father at an early age, and soon she embarked on a journey to share her culture with the rest of the world. In 2009, she set out to change the American mindset toward eating insects.

https://saltandstraw.com/blogs/news/eating-insects-is-the-past-present-and-future