If you’ve not yet consumed crickets, you may soon — particularly if you’re a partaker of European fare.

The European Union is putting the “pow” in “powder.” It’s giving eaters an explosion of insect compliments of a pinch of arthropod. From now on, those overseas will be bound to eat ground cousins of grasshoppers.

Following a three-year review, Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/2470 went into effect Tuesday. It allows food producers to put cricket powder in flour-based products.

In its scientific opinion, the [European Food Safety Authority] concluded that Acheta domesticus (house cricket) partially defatted powder is safe under the proposed conditions of use and use levels. … [T]hat scientific opinion gives sufficient grounds to establish that Acheta domesticus (house cricket) partially defatted powder when used in [an assortment of food] fulfills the conditions for its placing on the market…

Cricket powder will be permitted in the following:

• Multigrain Bread and Rolls
• Crackers and Breadsticks
• Cereal Bars
• Dry Pre-Mixes for Baked Products
• Biscuits
• Dry Stuffed and Non-Stuffed Pasta-Based Products
• Sauces
• Processed Potato Products
• Legume- and Vegetable- Based Dishes
• Pizza
• Pasta-Based Products
• Whey Powder
• Meat Analogues
• Soups and Soup Concentrates or Powders
• Maize Flour-Based Snacks
• Beer-Like Beverages
• Chocolate Confectionary
• Nuts and Oilseeds
• Snacks Other Than Chips
• Meat Preparations

The original application to start bugging people’s plates came courtesy of Cricket One, a company promoting “classic protein for a modern world.”

From CricketOne.Asia:

Cricket protein is nutritionally more efficient, high performing and complete. It is a reliable and sustainable source of alternative protein that does not harm the planet.

Cricket One is responsible for the farming practice of crickets while also innovating the highest quality and most sustainable ingredients for food, beverage, cosmetics, and pet food.

According to Cricket One, “Traditional cricket farmers and retailers are ineffective due to unsustainable practices, barriers to scalability, and high costs of production.” So forget traditional insect nutrition and rub your legs together for contemporary cricket cuisine.

The prospect of picking antennae out of your teeth has long been looming. Six years ago, the New York Post provided a progressive profile:

At Tomorrow’s Harvest farm, you won’t find acres of land on which animals graze, or rows of corn, or bales of hay. Just stacks of boxes in a basement and the summery song of thousands of chirping crickets.

It’s one of a growing number of operations raising crickets for human consumption that these farmers say is more ecologically sound than meat but acknowledge is sure to bug some people out.

In February of 2021, Time posed, “They’re healthy. They’re sustainable. So why don’t humans eat more bugs?”

Back to The Post that same year:

Bill Gates believes the wealthiest countries should switch to eating “100% synthetic beef” in order to help combat climate change.

The second-richest man in the world floated his ideas to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a new interview with MIT’s Technology Review.

Bill — who’s reportedly purchased thousands of acres of farmland — believes in you:

“You can get used to the taste difference, and the claim is they’re going to make it taste even better over time. Eventually, that green premium is modest enough that you can sort of change the [behavior of] people or use regulation to totally shift the demand.”

Serve up Insecta, save the world. Bugs are big impending business, and profit is delicious.

Change is chirping in Europe, and we’re no doubt not far behind. So in the future, don’t be surprised if your meal has mealworms. And soon, when you get some grub…it may be grub worms.

-ALEX

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Find all my RedState work here.

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