This is a guest post from our fantastic dietitian volunteer Sarah Dales. Thank you Sarah!
Insects have been traditionally consumed around the world for thousands of years, a practice known as “entomophagy”. In Africa and Australia, ants and beetle larvae are part of traditional subsistence diets, while in Thailand, fried locust and beetles are commonly enjoyed as a street food snack. In the Oaxaca state of Mexico, small grasshoppers (chapulines) are a common food among both indigenous communities and urban populations. In fact, there are close to 2000 edible insect species worldwide being consumed largely in Central and South America, sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.
In Canada, crickets and mealworms are two insects that you may have encountered in food form. For example, protein bars made with cricket powder (Naak) can be purchased at Mountain Equipment Co-op, President’s Choice introduced 100% cricket powder to its product line in 2018 (although it has since been discontinued) and you can get cricket added to your guacamole at El Catrin Mexican restaurant in Toronto’s Distillery District. And you may be surprised to learn that Ontario is home to Entomo Farms, the largest cricket farm in North America.
Still these examples are not exactly commonplace. Why? It is thought that edible insects are not widely accepted in present day Western countries due to several factors: cultural suppression of entomophagy in North American Indigenous groups, as well as plant and animal domestication adopted by European colonizers. Domesticated food production led to efficiencies (i.e. large amounts of meat, but also furs/leather/wool, milk products, etc.) that wild-caught insects could not compete with. The rise of farming also led to insects being seen more as pests and also vectors of disease, which further entrenched the mindset that they have few benefits. As a result, edible insects are not a familiar part of our national diet and there’s a good chance the thought of them as food still conjures images of eating challenges designed to disgust (remember Fear Factor?) rather than a nutritious meal option.
In 2013 The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) published an extensive report titled, “Edible insects: future prospects for food and feed security” in an effort to change this mindset and promote inclusion of insects in Western diets. This was driven by concern around the rising cost of meat, food insecurity, environmental concerns and population growth. But, a decade on, it doesn’t feel like we are any closer to accepting insects as a common food source. So, are we missing out on a potentially nutrient-rich and climate-friendly food? Let’s take a closer look.
Side note: While there are thousands of edible insects, most are harvested in the wild. For simplicity, we will stick to using farmed crickets and mealworms as examples here. They are two insect species that meet the regulatory requirements to be sold as food in Canada and among the few species that are currently farmed in any significant way.
Nutritional profile
In general, insects are considered to have a good nutritional profile: high in protein (with many containing all essential amino acids), rich in calcium, iron, zinc, B12 and high in unsaturated fatty acids. However, there can be high variability in the nutrition profile depending on the insect species, life stage, how the insects are prepared and what feed the insects have been raised on.
Crickets have been found to be particularly protein-rich, with an average protein content of 65g/100g of dry weight, higher than that of beef, eggs, milk and soy. And mealworms have an omega-3 content comparable to fish, as well as a protein, vitamin and mineral content similar to fish and meat.
Some insects, like crickets, are also a unique source of prebiotic fibre through chitin, a component of their exoskeleton.
Environmental impact
Edible insects have a significantly lower environmental impact when farmed compared to traditional livestock like cattle, pigs and chickens. They require less land and water and their high feed conversion efficiency (i.e. ability to convert feed into food energy). Crickets, for example, are twice as efficient as chicken at converting feed to “meat”, four times more efficient than pigs and twelve times more efficient than cattle. This is attributed to insects being cold-blooded and not requiring metabolism to maintain body temperature. Most insects also directly emit much fewer greenhouse gases than livestock (only a few insect groups, like termites and cockroaches even produce methane). Insects can also consume waste materials like manure or agri-waste (e.g. spent grains), providing a potential opportunity to use insects to help circularize food systems.
This all sounds pretty positive, but if we want to look more specifically at climate change impacts – in the form of Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – of insect farming, things get a bit murkier. This is because the body of research looking at Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of insects is still small and lacking standardized experiment protocols, making drawing general conclusions difficult. There are many variables that can change between studies including processing technologies used, the specific type of insect being studied and what the insects are fed (this is the largest contributor to changes in GHG emissions).
One systematic review by Ros-Baro et al (2022), summarized some of the environmental impacts of insect farming versus traditional livestock (see image below). Their findings show clear advantages to insect farming in terms of land use and feed required to produce 1kg of body mass, but not necessarily in terms of GHG emissions, water use or energy use, depending on the livestock being compared to. Importantly, these findings lumped together different insects, different endpoints for the insects (animal feed vs. human food) and waste-fed and non-waste fed insects. As mentioned above, what the insects are fed can make a significant difference in their carbon footprint.
Looking specifically at mealworms, a LCA study by Oonincx and De Boer (2012) is summarized in graphs below (as depicted in Van Huis et al 2013). They show lower GHG emissions (shown as global warming potential) and land use for mealworm production compared to milk, chicken, pork and especially beef. Energy use was slightly higher than for milk and chicken, but less than for pork and beef.
Thinking in terms of the general environmental benefits, edible insects seem to have some clear advantages to traditional livestock. And while they seem to show much promise in terms of GHG emissions compared to animal protein sources, additional studies would be beneficial. But, that may not even matter given the biggest hurdle edible insects face in Western countries – getting over the “yuck” factor.
Changing Western Cultural Norms
The most consistently identified factors impacting Western consumers’ attitudes towards edible insects are disgust and a reluctance to try new foods (food neophobia). In addition, how visible the insects are (e.g. whole vs. powder form) and the amount of insect present are other factors that hold sway over acceptance. These barriers explain why starting with insect flour has been touted as a strategy to increase acceptance of entomophagy in Western cultures. This would also be a way to increase protein and fibre content of traditionally grain-based foods.
Taste, price and retail availability are other non-psychological factors that impact consumers’ choices. A quick price comparison online reveals cricket powder is currently more than twice the price of a common whey protein powder ($0.15/g for cricket powder compared to $0.06/g for whey protein).
These are just a few of the myriad factors that influence consumers’ behaviour toward edible insects. You may be wondering if a whole culture has shifted to accept a “new” food before. The closest success story of a marginal food going mainstream in Western cultures would be sushi (raw fish). And if sushi can go from obscurity to ubiquity in a generation, perhaps insects can too.
Other Considerations
Say you are interested in adding some edible insects to your diet, practically speaking, how would you go about doing it? While much of the literature poses insects as an alternative to traditional livestock, most commercially produced insects are available as snacks (like BBQ flavoured crickets) or protein powders and not necessarily in a form that can be easily substituted for animal-products at main meals (at least not yet). Not everyone uses protein powder and as we learned in a previous blog post, snack foods are already pretty low emissions.
(Although there’s potential for some nutrition gains depending on what you are replacing).
Curious about how insects are being included in restaurants around the world? Check out Food & Wine’s “7 Upscale Bug Dishes From Around the World”.
And one more factor to consider: for those with shellfish and/or dust mite allergies, caution is advised when consuming insects as many contain similar proteins that could trigger an allergic response.
Takeaway
At this time, in North America, insects remain more of a novelty than a viable climate-friendly alternative to animal meat for human consumption. In the future, assuming insect farming can be done efficiently at scale, prices drop, additional studies support climate benefits AND consuming insects can be adopted into the food culture, insects have the potential to be a nutritionally comparable and environmentally-friendly alternative to (at least some) animal sources of protein (especially beef).
Are edible insects a regular part of your diet? Would you include them? We’d love to hear from you about encounters you’ve had with bugs in your practice!
References
Halloran A., Roos, N., Eilenberg, J. et al. Life cycle assessment of edible insects for food protein: a review. Agron. Sustain. Dev. 36, 57 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-016-0392-8
Kroger T, Dupont J, Busing L and Fiebelkorn F. Acceptance of Insect-Based Food Products in Western Societies: A Systematic Review. Front Nutr.. 2022 Feb 21;8:759885. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2021.759885
Li M, Mao C, Li X, Jiang L, Zhang W, Li M, Liu H, Fang Y, Liu S, Yang G, Hou X. Edible Insects: A New Sustainable Nutritional Resource Worth Promoting. Foods. 2023 Nov 9;12(22):4073. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods12224073
“New directions (changing what’s edible)”. York University. https://foodpolicyforcanada.info.yorku.ca/new-directions-changing-whats-edible/#anchor3
Oonincx D.G.A.B., de Boer I.J.M. Environmental Impact of the Production of Mealworms as a Protein Source for Humans-A Life Cycle Assessment. PLoS ONE. 2012;7:51145. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0051145
Orkusz A. Edible Insects versus Meat-Nutritional Comparison: Knowledge of Their Composition Is the Key to Good Health. Nutrients. 2021 Apr 6;13(4):1207. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13041207
Ros-Baró M, Casas-Agustench P, Díaz-Rizzolo DA, Batlle-Bayer L, Adrià-Acosta F, Aguilar-Martínez A, Medina FX, Pujolà M, Bach-Faig A. Edible Insect Consumption for Human and Planetary Health: A Systematic Review. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Sep 15;19(18):11653.https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191811653
Rubinstein D. “Edible Insects: Why Cricket Protein Could be a Game-Changer”. Carlton University. https://challenge.carleton.ca/cricket-protein-edible-insects/.
Smetana S, Bhatia A, Batta U, Mouhrim N, Alberto Tonda, Environmental impact potential of insect production chains for food and feed in Europe, Animal Frontiers, 2023 Aug; 13(4): 112-120. https://doi.org/10.1093/af/vfad033
Van Huis A., Klunder J.V.I.H., Merten E., Halloran A., Vantomme P. Future Prospects for Food and Feed Security. Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO); Rome, Italy: 2013. Edible insects. Fao Forestry Papers. https://www.fao.org/4/i3253e/i3253e.pdf. Accessed on February 17, 2025.
Waltner-Toews D. “In Praise of Eating Bugs”. The Walrus. https://thewalrus.ca/in-praise-of-eating-bugs/.