RTÉ News - Thursday 30 October 2014 16.49
Dutch supermarket chain unveils insect-based product range
The retailer plans to offer edible insect products in 400 stores across the Netherlands by next year
A major supermarket chain in the Netherlands is unveiling its first-ever range of insect-based products this week.
From tomorrow, customers at Jumbo stores in two northern Dutch cities will be able to purchase 'buggy balls', 'buggy burgers' and 'buggy crisps'.
The move is the start of a roll-out plan to put edible insect products on shelves in 400 stores across the country by early next year.
According to Jumbo spokeswoman Laura Valks "Edible insects are not only healthy, but sustainable and give the opportunity to do something about replenishing ailing food resources".
Although some insect-based foods are already commercially available at Dutch wholesalers, Jumbo is the first national supermarket chain to stock shelves with products made from meal-worms, buffalo worms and moth larvae.
The products, which will cost between €5.95 and €6.79 per portion, come in a variety of flavours.
One of the new products, ‘buggy crisps’ is made from crispy fried moth larvae and will be available flavoured with either salt or paprika.
Last year the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said insects could supplement diets around the world as an environmentally-friendly food source, as it urged Western consumers to get over their "disgust" of eating creepy-crawlies.
According to the FAO, an estimated 2bn people, one third of the world's population, is already eating insects.
An FAO report states the insects most commonly consumed by humans are beetles (31%); caterpillars (18%); bees, wasps and ants (14%); followed by grasshoppers, locusts and crickets (13%)."
+1 all the way