entomophagy

 

Entomophagy is the practice of eating insects as food. Entomophagy is seen in a large number of taxonomic groups including insects (that eat other insects), birds and mammals.

The term is also used to describe human insect-eating habits that are common in some cultures in parts of the world including Central and South America, Africa, Asia and Australia, but uncommon and even taboo in some societies.

History

Before humans had tools to hunt or practice agriculture, insects must have represented an important part of their diet.

Evidence of this was found by analyzing coprolites from caves in USA and Mexico. Coprolites in caves in the Ozark Mountains were analyzed and found to contain ants, beetle larvae, lice, ticks and mites.^[1] Cave paintings depicting the collection of wild bee nests where found in a cave of Artamila, north Spain and dated to about 9,000 to 30,000 B.C. At the time people must have eaten bee pupae and larvae with the honey. Cocoons of wild silkworm (Theophilia religiosae) were found in ruins in the Shanxi province of China, dating from 2,00 to 2,500 years B.C. The cocoons had large holes in them, suggesting the pupae were eaten.^[1] Much of ancient entomophagy practices have been passed down to the present, forming traditional entomophagy. ^[1]

Present-day

Entomophagy can be divided into two categories; some insects are used as nutrients source, others as condiments.

Some insects are eaten as larvae, others as adults. Over 1200 species of insects are used as food by people throughout the world. Commonly eaten insects and arachnids include grasshoppers, crickets, termites, ants, beetle larvae (grubs), moth caterpillars and pupae, spiders, tarantulas, and scorpions.

Specific cases

• The consumption of the Hormiga Culona (literally "fatass ant") Atta laevigata is traditional in Colombia. In some places the commercial exploitation of food insects has led to their decline.^[2]

• Gonimbrasia belina is a species of moth found in much of southern Africa, whose large edible caterpillar, the mopani or mopane worm, is an important source of protein for millions of Southern Africans.

• Maguey worms in Spanish Gusanos del maguey, are two varieties of edible caterpillars that infest maguey and Agave tequilana plants and are eaten in rural Mexico as a delicacy, cooked in different ways. Besides these, grasshoppers of the genus Sphenarium, called Chapulines, are considered a delicacy by many Mexicans.

Advantages

Insects generally have a higher food conversion efficiency than more traditional meats. For example studies concerning the house cricket (Acheta domesticus) have shown it has it is a food conversion more efficient than commonly eaten vertebrate meats. When reared at 30°C or more, and fed a diet of equal quality to the diet used to rear conventional livestock, house crickets show a food conversion twice as efficient as pigs and brmoiler chicks, four times that of sheep, and six times higher than (steers) when losses in carcass trim and dressing percentage are counted.^[1]

Furthermore insects reproduce at a faster rate than beef animals, a female cricket can lay from 1,200 to 1,500 in 3 to 4 weeks, in beef the ration is of four breeding animals for each market animal produced. Thus giving house crickets a true food conversion efficiency almost 20 times higher than beef.^[1]

For this reason and because of the essential amino acids content of insects some people propose the development of entomophagy to provide a major source of protein in human nutrition. Protein production for human consumption would be more effective and cost less resources than animal protein. Thus making insect meat more ecological than vertebrate meat.

Other issues

Toxicity

Pesticide use can make insects unsuitable for human consumption. Herbicides can accumulate in insects through bio-accumulation. For example when government sprays locust outbreaks people can no longer eat them, this may pose a problem since edible plants have been consumed by the locusts themselves. ^[1]

Cases of lead poisoning after consumption of chapulines have also been reported by the California Department of Health Services in November 2003^[3]

Adverse allergic reactions are also a possible hazard.^[4]

Cultural issues

Within Western culture, entomophagy (barring honey) is seen as a taboo with no rational or scientific basis.^[5] This avoidance of entomophagy coexists with the consumption of other invertebrates such as crustaceans and mollusks, and is not based on taste or food value.^[5] Within Judaism, most insects are not considered kosher, though honey, locusts, grasshoppers, and related species are.

The anthropologist Marvin Harris has suggested that the eating of insects is taboo in cultures that have other protein sources that require less work to obtain, like farm birds or cattle, though there are cultures which feature both animal husbandry and entomophagy. Examples can be found in Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe where strong cattle-raising traditions co-exist with entomophagy of insects like the mopane worm.

Unintentional entomophagy

Since it is impossible to entirely eliminate pest insects from the human food chain, insects already are present in many foods, especially grains. Most people do not realize that food laws in many countries do not prohibit insect parts in food, but rather limit the quantity. People in rice eating regions for instance would be ingesting significant numbers of Rice weevil (Sitophilus oryzae) larvae, and this has been suggested as an important source of vitamins.^[6]

Here are examples of food products and their maximum levels of natural or unavoidable defects in foods for human use that present no health hazard:

Product	Type of insect contamination	Quantity
Canned sweet corn	Insect larvae (corn ear worms or corn borers)	2 or more 3 mm or longer larvae, cast skins, larval or cast skin fragments, the aggregate length of insects or insect parts exceeds 12 mm in 24 pounds
Canned citrus fruit juices	Insects and insect eggs	5 or more Drosophila and other fly eggs per 250 ml or 1 or more maggots per 250 ml
Canned apricots	Insect filth	Average of 2% or more by count has been damaged or infected by insects
Chocolate and chocolate liquor	Insect filth	Average is 60 or more insect fragments per 100 grams (when 6 100 g subsamples are examined)
Peanut butter	Insect filth	Average of 30 or more insect fragments per 100 grams
Wheat flour	Insect filth	Average of 150 or more insect fragments per 100 grams
Frozen broccoli	Insects and mites	Average of 60 or more aphids and/or thrips and/or mites per 100 grams
Hops	Insects	Average of more than 2,500 aphids per 10 grams
Ground thyme	Insect filth	Average of 925 or more insect fragments per 10 grams
Ground nutmeg	Insect filth	Average of 100 or more insect fragments per 10 grams
Ground cinnamon	Insect filth	Average of 80 or more insect fragments per 10 gram

^[7] See source for information on other food products.

Non-human consumption of insects

Many insects are entomophagous and these are usually classified into predators and parasitoids, while some are cannibalistic. Nematodes that live within insects (parasites) are also termed entomophagous. Some bacteria and fungi are also known to growing on or inside insects and these usually cause the death of their hosts. These too are sometimes termed entomophagous, although the term entomopathogen is more appropriate. (See also Entomopathogenic fungi)

References

See also

• Taboo food and drink
• Ethnoentomology
• Casu marzu

External links

• Staff writer (2007). Edible insects. New Scientist 2595: 56. 
• Gene R. DeFoliart (2002-09-29). The Human Use of Insects as a Food Resource: A Bibliographic Account in Progress. University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• Jeff Stewart. Understanding the Role of Insects in Foods and Foodways. Creepy Crawly Cooking.
• William F. Lyon. Insects as Human Food. Ohio State University.
• Ian Frazier (1997). It's Hard to Eat Just One. Outside.
• Lana Unger (1999-01-20). Insect Snacks from Around the World. University of Kentucky.
• Gene DeFoliart. Insects as Food.
• How many insect parts and rodent hairs are allowed in your food?. Sixwise.com.
• Rob Toms & Mashudu Thagwana (2003). Eat your bugs - harvesting edible stink-bugs. Science in Africa.
• Peter Menzel & Faith D'Aluisio (1998). Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects. Ten Speed Press ISBN 1580080227.

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