Insects for dinner... but not as guests

Experts from Costa Rica travelled to Benin for the project. Here they found that eating locusts, crickets, termites, beetle larva and butterfly larva is the most normal thing in the world.

Beetle larva can be found in the leaves of palm trees. In Benin, people use the same leaves to make wine. When a palm tree dies, it becomes infested with beetles. Manuel Zumbado tasted beetle larva on a skewer, and explains how the larva are prepared:

“… Just like shrimps. Some people fry them, others roast them on a fire. They skewer them with a bit of onion. Then they are placed on a banana tree leaf with a delicious spicy sauce.”

He stresses that insects have a high nutritional value: are low on fat and cholesterol, have high-quality protein as well as trace elements and vitamins. Compared to what many people usually eat - beef, pork, chicken or fish – they are much more nutritious.

The Costa Rican researchers say it is just a matter of habit:

“People think you mean putting a raw cockroach in your mouth when you talk about eating insects. (…) but that isn’t what it is about. We don’t eat chickens with feathers and all. It’s the preparation, presentation and information that matters.”

The consumption of insects is often associated with survival in extreme conditions. This is why INBío wants to promote eating insects in top-end restaurants. Once people stop seeing it as something cheap, they will find it more attractive.

In some Latin American countries it’s fairly normal to eat insects. Eating grasshoppers is, for example, quite common in Mexico is common. In Colombia, people eat ants in the same way people eat peanuts in the Netherlands.

Tarantulas

In Venezuela, the Yanomami people are known to eat theraposa leblondi, the world’s largest tarantula.


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