Have you ever taken a fruit and as you were eating it you pulse to look at it and behold you see a maggot in it. What will your reaction be? Would you continue eating it or get very irritated and throw it away. I guess a lot of people will just simply throw it away. But the truth about it is that we eat insect without knowing that we do. While some are aware, but what can they do about it than just simply ignore it.
Does that make you an entomophagist? The answer may simply be yes or no. No because an entomophagist is a person who eats all sort of insects as a common practice, and no because insects are eaten unknowingly and so it doesn’t make one a complete entomophagist.
If you take a peek at the Food and Drug Administration's Defect Levels Handbook, you'll notice the acceptable defect notation for "Coffee Beans, Green" states "Average 10% or more by count are insect-infested or insect-damaged." We're all eating bugs all the time, she notes. We're just in deep denial about it.
Insects in our food
According to FDA we eat bugs knowingly or unknowingly and some of these insects part can be found in the food that we eat and thus it is referred to as natural or unavoidable defects in foods. It states that there are about 60 parts of insects which makes about 3-5 ounces in chocolates. About 30 parts of insect per 3-5 ounces in peanut butter. Up to 10 drosophila fly eggs or 5 drosophila eggs and maggot in tomatoes.
Nutritional value in insects
236 species of edible bugs with high nutritional composition was compiled by Germany. Bugs can provide calories amino acid, protein. It also has monounsaturated fats or polyunsaturated fats, micronutrients such as copper, iron selenium, zinc, biotin, manganese, riboflavin amongst others.
There is a need to consider other means of providing food for humans because of the looming concern regarding food security. The world is anticipated to reach 9 billion in 2050, so there is a need to redouble increase in food.
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