Tuesday 07-26-16

Worth watching

https://youtu.be/U6fNShSY_Iw



A Mouth Full of Crickets? Lobbyists Speak Up for Edible Insects

At the Oyamel Cocina Mexicana in Washington, metal butterfly mobiles hang from the ceiling and bugs are on the menu.
The chapulines tacos are jammed with thumb-sized roasted grasshoppers, a delicacy head chef Colin King cooks in tequila and chipotle puree and serves with shallots.
“There’s a lot of instances when people try them for the first time where, if they can get over the mental aspect of it, then they end up really liking them," King said. "I know I went through that when I first tried them.”

Connoisseurs of edible insects say more and more people are coming to like such dishes, which represent an untapped source of environmentally sustainable protein. And the industry is getting organized to push for further consumer -- and government -- acceptance.
At a conference of bug-eaters held in May in Detroit, the North American Edible Insect Coalition was organized. It plans to announce a lobbying campaign in a few months to convince the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to add mealworms, crickets protein powder and other insect products to the agency’s database of Generally Recognized as Safe ingredients, or GRAS.

Like Seafood

Someday, supporters say, bugs could be listed as their own food group, similar to seafood.
“One thing that the edible-insect community has really been good at is educating people about safety, but it is difficult to do so when the FDA doesn’t acknowledge that it is safe to eat,” said Mark Nagy, a member of the coalition and brand owner of cricket food company Incredible Foods, in Fort Worth, Texas.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-25/a-mouth-full-of-crickets-lobbyists-speak-up-for-edible-insects