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Frozen, dried or powdered: the European Commission approves the sale of grasshoppers as food in the EU this Tuesday. Switzerland follows suit.
The house cricket can be present in frozen, dried or powdered form in a whole range of foods, such as breads, cereal bars, soups, pizzas or meat substitutes.
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Like it or not, insects will become part of your diet. In fact, from this Tuesday, the European Commission approves the marketing of house cricket powder (Acheta domesticus), fully or partially defatted, as a novel food. An authorization that Berne takes over. “As the cricket is approved for human consumption in the EU, it is automatically also approved in Switzerland,” confirmed the Federal Office for Food Safety.
And it will be hard to escape it. Because the house cricket is likely to be present in frozen, dried or powdered form, in a whole range of foods. Such as multi-grain breads and rolls, crackers, cereal bars, sauces, potato products, pulses and vegetable dishes, not to mention pizzas, soups, powdered whey, meat substitutes, drinks similar to beer or even chocolate confections!
Beware of vegetarians and vegans
However, the amount of domestic chickens in the food will be limited. But we can find it in e.g. meat substitutes up to a 5% content, risking the consternation of vegetarians and vegans who have no choice but to dissect the ingredients list, while those with pre-existing shellfish and dust mite allergies. And beware if they come across sibylline indications like “contains animal protein” or “contains protein flour”…
No such products at Migros
In Switzerland, an internet user asked Migros about its intentions to market this type of product. The orange giant has assured that it will not sell insect products. A trial completed in 2018 proved to be a commercial failure. “These little beasts are not part of the Swiss plate,” he stressed.
Note that cricket will be marketed by a single company at the moment, “Criquet One”, based in Vietnam. Who got an authorization for the next 5 years. “A rigorous evaluation concluded that its use was safe within the framework of the proposed uses”, the commission clarifies.
Besides, insects, you can already eat them without knowing it. The grasshopper is actually the third species to receive EU approval after the dried mealworm and the wandering grasshopper, both approved last year.
Good for health
In recent years, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has found that insects are a healthy and nutritious food source with a high content of fat, protein, vitamins, fiber and minerals. She also reminds that they are an important part of the daily diet for hundreds of millions of people around the world.
