If you found a worm in your sliced bread you would be horrified. You would probably share photos and outrage on social media and return the loaf to the shop you bought it from.
Consider then that mealworm powder has just been approved by the European Union as a novel food ingredient and is now legally allowed to constitute up to 4% of food products like bread, biscuits, cakes, cheese, pasta and potato-based snacks.
But why mealworms? Why bread? And why now?
Mealworms, the larvae of darkling beetles, are presented as an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional livestock, as they are said to have a lower carbon footprint and require fewer resources to farm.
The problem is we don’t want to eat bugs and creepy crawlies. It’s fair to say that despite the almost total lack of demand, supranational organisations like the United Nations, and entities such as the World Economic Forum, along with celebrities and TV cookery programmes, have all jumped on the insect bandwagon, hailing them as the future of food.
Read more: The Great Climate Fear Factory
