Gonna be honest, if you told me a country was going to start doing this, I would not have picked Italy
this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2024
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Yeah. Didn't their politicians/farmers lobby block lab grown meat recently.
You can buy cricket flour in Canada. There is a manufacturer in Nova Scotia.
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Yeah, my wife will be pissed if I tell her about this.
Why? It's just more choice, nobody will be forced to buy it. Seems silly to get upset about what other people choose to eat... Wait, she's Italian, checks out.
Well, other EU countries already sell insect-based food countries.and I'm not sure to what degree they can completely ignore the EU regulations.
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I am all for this, eating insects is done in many cultures and a healthy source of nutrition. We westerners may see it as something intimidating at first, because we so squirmish about bugs, but I am honestly curious about the taste.
That being said, I don't know why we need more nutritious flour. We are not lacking protein in our diets. Even vegans and vegetarians easily hit the minimum protein intake by consuming plant based protein....
It is not only about hitting the limits. it is also about creating the right balance. It is a good way of getting protein intake, w.o. having carbohydrates alongside.
We are not lacking protein in our diets
Doesn't mean that we can't look for more environmentally friendly protein sources, or cheaper ones, or open up more options to replace the carbs that are badly overrepresented in the average American's diet, or explore new potential flavors, or use this as a supplement for other nutrients it may contain, or any number of other perfectly valid reasons to explore a new food source. More knowledge is better, it lets us make decisions that more closely fit our needs and gives us more flexibility in solving problems.
We are not lacking protein in our diets.
Go to any fitness community and you will see tons of people trying to get more protein in their diet. This is a niche food, I highly doubt it will appear anywhere in any non specialty products. I don't see any problems with more choice as long as it has been tested to be safe, which this is.
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I'm still kind of puzzled about why you'd want to use something like this, instead of plant-based ingredients.
Though obviously it doesn't make sense to completely outlaw it, either.
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apparently extremely nutritious and high in protein
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But obviously creepy & disgusting and many people are NOT willing to intentionally eat this.
Guess what else is nutritious and high in protein, but not creepy? Beans.
I'd rather just eat more beans than crickets.
The whole eating insects idea is motivated by carbon emissions and similar concerns: insect meal is around 60-70% protein (beans are around 30%, maybe bean meal is more but I have never seen it anywhere), and its cost in terms of emissions and land use is much smaller than either meat or plants (especially stuff like soy). Nobody is arguing that it should replace beans. Rather, it could help diminish meat consumption.
its cost in terms of emissions and land use is much smaller than either meat or plants (especially stuff like soy)
Is that true? Do you have some links for that?
According to this study a mealworm farm uses more energy per kg of protein produced compared to chicken, but much less energy than any other meat. However, mealworm farms rank lowest in COβ-equivalent emissions per kg of protein and lowest in land use compared to all meat products, including chicken.
Apparently soy beans produce 6.82 kg of COβ-equivalent per kg of protein isolate (which is 90% protein, therefore 7,5 kg of COβ-equivalent per kg of protein), while mealworm farms produce 14 kg of COβ-equivalent per kg of protein (and around 30 kg for chicken, the next best option). Worse, but less than double.
As for land use, the first study calculates that to produce 1kg of protein from mealworms it is necessary to use 18 square meters of land per year (including the land to grow food for the worms) while according to this other study vegetable proteins need up to 25 square meters of land per year for each kg of protein.
I admit it's not as big a difference in land use as I thought (it's different studies, they might have slightly different metrics) , but I think there are other factors that make it a much more complicated issue: mass use of fertilizers, monocultures, deforestation, soil impoverishment... An advantage of mealworms might be that you can give them a variety of foods that are easier on the soil (the first study mentioned carrots, grains and other stuff) in order for them to produce protein, while protein-heavy plants require rich soil and tend to drain it fast.
Thanks!
The mix of possible food sources is something I hadn't considered. I can definitely see that insects could be useful for using up food scraps.
Land use is a complicated one. 18 instead of 25 mΒ² is definitely something, but it pales in comparison to how much more land is used by cattle, pigs or chicken. And it's not like soybeans (or any other legumes) are intrinsically a destructive crop.
I agree, I honestly expected a much starker difference in land use. I also agree that soy beans can be grown responsibly, except of course it's often not the case. The fact that both soybeans and insects are being grown largely as a source of protein for cattle brings us once again back to the main issue: cows!
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I know of no flour replacements that have literally zero carbs. Even whey protein which is a fitness supplement has more carbs. I'm sure the keto community would be super into this.
Eating insects is not weird in many cultures, and a product existing does not mean you have to eat it. Plenty of people hate tomatoes, should that be banned too? Don't like it? Don't eat it. You can be happy for the people that do want this.
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Eating insects is normal in many cultures. Calling it obviously creepy and disgusting is imposing your own narrow value system on others. The world is a big and diverse place. If it isn't hurting anyone (well, other than the crickets), why should it matter? Nobody is going to be forced to eat this if they don't want to.
There are so many non Western foods that most westerners aren't into, should they all be banned? And who knows? Maybe adventurous eaters will try it and like it. Sushi used to be viewed as "objectively creepy and disgusting" by many westerners for decades.
creepy & disgusting is a matter of opinion, not fact, and anyone who isn't willing to eat this is perfectly free to just not.
I havenβt figured this out either, but my wild guess is the greater protein content over carbs in regular flour. Iβm thinking of things like keto meal bars, or something.
Same would be true for pea protein powder, tho. Maybe cricket powder is actually cheaper than isolated legume protein, but legume protein seems like a much easier sale.
Everyone here saying how awful this sounds, and I'm just sitting here excited to try a new food. I ate mealworms before and they were pretty good, so why not?
It's certainly not what I'm used to but it's definitely less weird than some common foods we typically eat like cheese (which I fucking love, but if you think about it its weird as shit!)
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the ideas that:
no one should have to eat bugs if they don't want to
and
people who want to eat bugs should be able to get bugs easily
aren't mutually exclusive.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
βThis is very big news for us,β said Cianni, whose main motive for the business initiative was to provide an alternative, sustainable protein source.
Since 2020, millions of crickets have been raised at the companyβs plant in Montecassiano, a town in the central Marche region, where they are heat-treated before being frozen and ground into powder.
The EU approved the sale of insects β namely crickets, locusts and darkling beetle larvae β for human consumption in early 2023, sparking a flurry of proposed regulations from the Italian government, including one aimed at ensuring insects are kept away from traditional dishes such as pasta and pizza.
βItβs fundamental that these flours are not confused with food made in Italy,β said the agriculture minister Francesco Lollobrigida at the time.
However, by the time the regulations became official at the end of last year, the government had relented, instead imposing strict labelling rules, such as clearly stating the productβs origin and the requirement to use Acheta domesticus, the Latin for house cricket, on packets so as to make it a little less startling to the consumer.
βItβs good for the environment because the resources required to breed crickets and the spaces used are really small, and so emissions are almost zero,β said Cianni.
The original article contains 470 words, the summary contains 210 words. Saved 55%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
How many insect parts are allowed per kg of flour? π€
No more than 1kg
i saw a packet of heinz ketchup that said 148g of tomato per 100g. I guess they evaporate the liquid but I had a good laugh.
It's all fine as long as it doesn't look like a cricket.
βοΈππ¦ Will ask my Italian mum, if we maybe could have some cricket lasagne. Jammi-jammi.
Maybe some butterfly Farfalle first?
Yall are excited for this but I'll stick to wheat flour, thanks.
Can't wait to try this.
Would go soo well as a traditional Italian Hawaiian pizza.
(/s on the pizza thing, do kinda wanna try it though)
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