In Korea, people used to catch frog legs and grasshoppers and eat them roasted, and silkworm pupae were delicious snacks at amusement parks and playgrounds.

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There has been a movement to use insects as food for many years due to the excessive energy consumption and carbon emissions in the production of agricultural and livestock products, etc. for human food. Let’s find out how far insects as food have come.

1 Types of edible insects

In the Food Codex of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, grasshoppers, edible silkworms, brown mealworm larvae, two-spotted crickets, longicorn beetle larvae, and white-spotted flower chafer larvae are registered as insects in food ingredients (6 types of raw materials converted from temporary standards and specifications: brown mealworm larvae (mealworm, gosoa), two-spotted crickets, longicorn beetle larvae, white-spotted flower chafer larvae (gumbaengi, flower chafer), American king beetle larvae, and drone bee pupae) are listed as edible insects.

2 Where are they used?

Insects look disgusting and are hard to reach for, but they are ground into powder and their shape is not retained, so they are less repulsive.

They are not yet used for direct consumption as powdered products, but are used as food ingredients, such as bread, cookies, protein bars, burger patties, pasta, and snacks. Efforts are being made to develop insect dishes.

It is said that they will also be promising as space food when the space age opens in the future.

3 Pros and Cons of Edible Insects

The pros of edible insects include that they require less water and land, less energy such as electricity, and a large production volume per unit area, and that they are an excellent source of protein and contain potential ingredients such as oriental medicine. The cons are that the main ingredient, chitin, is indigestible, there is a repulsive feeling depending on the shape, and it cannot be developed into various food forms.

4 Possibility of using edible insects

In the future, it is known that the three main alternatives to livestock products such as pigs, broilers, etc. will be plant-based meat, insect meat, and artificially cultured meat. However, as laboratory-cultured meat becomes possible through factory production, the advantages of edible insects are diminishing due to the development of cultured meat that is more familiar to people and ethically better.

That does not mean that it will be replaced, but rather competed with alternative meat.

The insect business is recognized as more useful as animal feed or agricultural fertilizer than for human consumption, because it is good food and nutrients for animals and plants, and it is possible to produce inexpensive protein.

5 Opinion

Edible insects have various advantages, but in the future, they are expected to compete with alternative meat, and their excellent protein will be used as health functional foods due to their unique ingredients and as livestock feed. We will have to watch the development process of insect-based food, but as a business, we will have to wait a little longer to see how it will change in the competition with alternative meat.

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