Food for thought: Belfast biology group serves up insects for dinner

Mealworms anybody? Or how about an insect-based snack to keep your hunger at bay? Before your stomach turns at the thoughts of such dishes, it is worth chewing on this fact – two billion people worldwide have a daily intake of insects for food and nutrition.

Mealworms surround a potato piece. Image by BenGrantham / CC BY 2.0

This weekend, the Northern Ireland Society of Biology will offer food lovers the opportunity to sample some tasty insect-based dishes at Belfast’s St George’s market.

The society wants to get people to think differently by running cooking demonstrations, introducing tasting classes and providing hands-on activities which challenge our views on what we eat.

Enjoying the insect taste. Image by Matthias / CC BY 2.0

The Belfast Telegraph reports that we should prepare ourselves for a different taste in the future with chilli crickets and syrup-soaked mealworms part of healthy menus.

Mealworms provide a healthy diet for birds while almost 2000 species of insects are used as food by humans across the globe.

Rearing insects for food is much more cost efficient than animals while insects are a highly nutritional food source.

The events manager at the Society of Biology, Dr Penny Fletcher MSB, points to the problem of securing food to feed the global population. “it’s one of the biggest challenges of the 21^st century,” she stressed.

She added that it was now time to explore sustainable alternatives for our eating requirements.