It's time to get used to finding a fly in your soup, an ant in your ice cream, and a worm in your fruit salad. Sooner or later, you will see a grasshopper or a cricket on the wall, and you will start to salivate like an iguana, before saying like Pumbaa in The Lion King: "Slimy, yet satisfying." When read on a fine dining menu, they don't sound so bad either: pink tomato tartare, burrata and crispy grasshopper vinaigrette; wild sea bass cooked at low temperature with cricket beurre blanc and green asparagus; 70% chocolate ganache with mealworm praline and vanilla ice cream.
It is no longer an eccentric whim or a cultural imposition: insects have entered the European food debate through science, legislation, and above all, sustainability. While in markets in Bangkok or Mexico City they have been part of the daily diet for centuries, in Europe their arrival is being scrutinized legally and culturally. The question is no longer whether they can be eaten, but how, and who will be the first to integrate them into the recipe book of a continent that has historically viewed them with suspicion, if not disgust, while we willingly consume delicacies like oysters, snails, barnacles, and crab innards.
In Europe, the growing interest in insects responds to a global context marked by population growth. The discussion is no longer just a matter of taste; it ultimately raises questions about the future of the global food system. With a world population heading towards surpassing 9 billion inhabitants, the search for sustainable protein sources has become a strategic challenge. "Resources are becoming scarcer, there will be food shortages, and we need to start finding new protein sources," summarises Tatiana Pintado del Campo, a researcher at CSIC specializing in meat technology.
The phenomenon requires a reevaluation of deeply rooted cultural prejudices. What is perceived as strange today could gradually be integrated into the diet, just as it happened with foods that were once considered exotic or even repulsive. But why focus on the most repulsive of all? International organizations like the FAO have been pointing out for years that insects can be an efficient source of protein, with a lower ecological impact than intensive livestock farming. They produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions, require less water, and take up less space. These factors have put insects on the radar of researchers, food companies, and European regulators.
Alongside plant proteins such as soy or peas, insects are presented as an intermediate option between plant-based and animal-based protein. Their nutritional profile includes essential amino acids, iron, calcium, and B vitamins. "And their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant capacity is being studied," adds Ligia Esperanza Díaz Prieto, from the CSIC's immunonutrition research group, who has just published, along with 30 other researchers, Edible Insects in the World (CSIC-Catarata) to address the phenomenon of entomophagy.
"Until recently, if you mentioned an insect, you'd say: 'Never!' Now they are starting to be seen, people are talking about them...", ventures Díaz Prieto. "They won't replace a beef steak or a fish, but they are ingredients that the food industry will start using, and as demand grows, the production cost will decrease," explains Pintado.
In Mexico, grasshoppers are sold in popular markets; in Thailand, street stalls offer fried crickets and silkworms; in the Amazon, ants are consumed roasted; and in African countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo or Zambia, caterpillars are a common source of protein. It repulses us for the same reason that we wouldn't think of offering pungent Roquefort cheese to a Chinese or Japanese person, a haggis (a dish of sheep's lung, heart, and liver with oats) to someone who is not Scottish, or fermented herring to someone who is not Swedish. Nor would we offer blood sausage to a Muslim, tripe to an American, or foie gras to an Indian... And despite reading about it and acknowledging our ability to devour aberrations, we are unlikely to chase after a cockroach to fry it up and prepare a delicious crispy snack, as a good Vietnamese would.
"Resources are becoming scarcer, there will be food shortages, and we need to start finding new protein sources"
One thing is certain: if there is one thing abundant in the world, it's insects. They constitute between 75% and 80% of all known animal species. Ecological biomass studies published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences indicate that arthropods - with insects as the main group - represent the majority of terrestrial animal biomass, far surpassing mammals and birds.
Europe is in a transitional phase: between a food tradition that rejects insects and the need to explore sustainable alternatives. EU legislation has opened the door, the industry is beginning to develop products, and science supports their nutritional value. It remains to be seen whether the European consumer is willing to cross the cultural threshold and accept that, in the not-so-distant future, part of the protein they consume may come from crickets, worms, or grasshoppers, even if they don't see them on the plate.
Unlike Asia, Africa, or Latin America, where consumption has deep cultural roots, the continent is still in the process of establishing a specific legal framework to allow their commercialization. The key piece is Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 on novel foods, which requires a scientific evaluation of any ingredient that has not been significantly consumed before 1997. The regulation stipulates that each insect species must be individually authorized, analyzing its nutritional composition, microbiological safety, and potential toxicological risks. Thanks to this procedure, the European Commission has authorized the mealworm (Tenebrio molitor), the house cricket (Acheta domesticus), the migratory locust (Locusta migratoria), and the darkling beetle larva (Alphitobius diaperinus). And not in a generic manner. The authorizations specify the forms in which they can be commercialized (whole, dehydrated, powdered...) and the maximum consumption levels.
The most visible drive for entomophagy in Europe comes from the food industry, particularly the sports nutrition sector. Emerging companies have started producing cricket or mealworm flours to integrate them into energy bars, protein breads, and nutritional supplements. The Belgian company Entobel, for example, breeds insects on a large scale to convert them into protein. While the Spanish firm Insectum is currently targeting the curious consumer: they sell dried crickets, mealworms, or protein flours in small ready-to-eat formats. A small bag of dehydrated crickets weighing around 20-30 grams can be purchased for five to seven euros, in a format similar to a packet of nuts.
"They won't replace a beef steak or a fish, but insects are ingredients that the food industry will start using"
In the mid-16th century, during the colonization of what is now Mexico, European chroniclers were amazed by the richness and variety of indigenous food in the central highlands. In the great squares of Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco, as documented in the General History of the Things of New Spain by Bernardino de Sahagún, and in the True History of the Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Díaz del Castillo, not only corn, cocoa, or vegetables were sold, but also insects like grasshoppers, maguey worms, and aquatic insect eggs. Their accounts show how Europeans observed them with ethnographic curiosity, but never had the intention of integrating them into their dietary habits.
And we don't have to go that far back. In ancient Greece and classical Rome, certain insects were considered delicacies, such as beetle larvae raised in flour. According to Pliny the Elder's Natural History, ants and larvae were eaten in some regions of Africa, also valued for their supposed medicinal properties. And Aristotle, in his History of Animals, notes that bee larvae and waxworms were consumed on certain Aegean islands, although neither he nor Pliny the Elder proposed adopting such customs into the traditional Mediterranean diet.
Later, in the Middle Ages, some European regions ate insects during times of food scarcity; this led to these foods becoming associated with poverty and survival on the continent, contributing to their stigmatization. According to the researchers of Edible Insects of the World, the main obstacle to their expansion as a food source in Europe is not nutritional or legal, but psychological. Sociological studies agree on the association of insects with dirt, pests, and disease. The so-called disgust factor is still very strong.
Acceptance increases, however, when insects are presented in processed form. Protein flours, fortified snacks, or sports supplements generate less rejection than seeing the insect itself. This phenomenon had already been observed with other foods historically introduced to Europe, such as sushi or blue cheese, which are now fully integrated into the diet. "It's not the same to tell you, 'Grab a bag of crickets and eat them,' as it is to use insect flour for pasta to avoid gluten, or to incorporate them into an energy bar. Chia seeds were also a new food, and in 2012, to buy them you had to go to a health food store and pay six euros for 100 grams. Today they are very widespread, like quinoa," explains Pintado.
The debate, in short, no longer revolves around whether insects can be eaten, but about when and how they will cease to be perceived as a rarity and become a basic ingredient within the complex global food ecosystem.