141
Singapore has approved 16 insects to eat as food: here’s everything you need to know (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 4 months ago by jeffw@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
44 comments fedilink hide all child comments
all 45 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 28 points 4 months ago

As far as low environmental impact protein farms go, I personally prefer shellfish. They’re delicious, can survive mostly on algae (which I’d love to become another dietary mainstay), and can be used to clear heavy metals in non-dietary utilizations. Spirulina is delicious as well, but tends not to be a great heavy metal sink.

In the end, I just don’t love the texture of most bugs and I hope sustainable protein farming can branch out more in the future.

[-] jeffw@lemmy.world 21 points 4 months ago

I’m skeptical of any sort of seafood. Yes, it might be low environmental impact but we’ve overfished so much

[-] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 12 points 4 months ago

Very fair. I’m not a fan of the misrepresentation of modern fish farms as sustainable, either.

[-] shalafi@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

The idea would be to farm shellfish, like we do tilapia.

[-] zigmus64@lemmy.world 18 points 4 months ago

Maybe the insect protein farms can be used to develop food supplements instead of just being food by themselves.

[-] Obi@sopuli.xyz 1 points 4 months ago

That's pretty much my stance, if you make my protein bars with them or sausages or whatever that don't look or taste like them, I couldn't care less. Putting a huge, wiggly, juicy larva in my mouth is a hard no though.

[-] ABCDE@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago

In the end, I just don’t love the texture of most bugs and I hope sustainable protein farming can branch out more in the future.

That's fair, and... to me the concept/look/smell is off-putting, but it's a huge industry in much of Asia.

[-] tiefling@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 4 months ago

That's honestly how I feel about shellfish as well.

Shellfish is also a common allergy

[-] samus12345@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

can survive mostly on algae

This reminded me of our pet crayfish Pinchy. I found him crossing a road not near any water after a storm and he was missing a claw. We kept him in a plastic tub and did nothing but add water and give him algae wafers for the 5 more years he lived. He grew his claw back and seemed perfectly happy to sit in the same place and not have to search for food for the entire time. Talk about a low maintenance pet!

[-] nickel_for_your_thoughts@lemmy.world 21 points 4 months ago

Crickets are actually pretty tasty when prepared well; they make good snacks for when you want something crunchy like potato chips but with a heartier nutritional profile. I've had them in both sweet and savory flavors. Crickets are a tiny bit gritty as a protein powder, but still pretty good. I haven't tried them as flour but it's probably similar to the protein powder.

It's not on the list, but I've always wanted to try honeypot ants.

[-] leftzero@lemmynsfw.com 13 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I don't know, Singapore has a population of around five and a half million... sixteen insects probably won't be enough for that many people... even if they were millipedes most citizens wouldn't even get one leg...

[-] Corvidae@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago

Allergenicity? Are any humans allergic to insects as food?

[-] idiomaddict@feddit.de 14 points 4 months ago

A friend of mine is epi-pen levels of allergic to shellfish and they wouldn’t let him try crickets in culinary school because there’s often an overlap.

[-] evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

With 17 year cicadas popping up, people were eating them like shrimp. There were actually warnings put out by health agencies not to try it if you had a shellfish allergy.

[-] AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 months ago

Huh, TIL. I tried crickets once as a kid and don't remember having any issues with it, but I can't order cream cheese wontons from the Chinese place near my house because it's the same fryer they use for squid. I found that out after I ordered them once and had a reaction. :/ Weirdly, I used to love crab rangoon before I went vegetarian and I never had a problem with it, and I don't remember having problems the few times I've tried shrimp either. Squid has always been a problem for me though, the few times I've tried it or been exposed.

[-] idiomaddict@feddit.de 4 points 4 months ago

If it helps, that might be irrelevant for you! My friend mentioned that chitin was the issue (no idea if he’s right, please don’t take medical advice from me), so things like shrimp and crab are huge problems for him, but I think cephalopods less so

[-] AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 months ago

Yeah, in my case it might just be molluscs (or possibly just squid, but I'm probably going to avoid escargot and mussels), which is less common but possible - crustaceans only is apparently much more common, but they apparently generally associate the two because it's not unusual for both to cause problems and with serious allergies it's better to not fuck around and find out.

[-] samus12345@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Must have an allergy to mollusks, but not crustaceans.

[-] NickwithaC@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

Bitches rather eat bugs than eat mushrooms.

[-] Obi@sopuli.xyz 1 points 4 months ago

In Clarkson's farm last season he starts growing mushrooms in this tiny space and the production just looked insane, like come back two days later to kilos and kilos of mushrooms. I seriously considered starting this as a side gig but I don't have any space for it.

[-] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 months ago

The main issue is you can’t smell a TV show. Notice how he literally threw up inside his respirator?

[-] fubarx@lemmy.ml 6 points 4 months ago

Saw crispy cricket in a fancy package at the grocery store last week. Was intrigued but it was $15 for a fairly small package.

[-] samus12345@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

If they make 'em cheap I'll try it.

[-] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 4 points 4 months ago

The ones in the thumbnail look like silkworm pupas, which I tried cooked in oil in Korea. It was pretty good actually, like a nutty taste. Bit oily though-- wonder if they'd be good roasted instead.

[-] supercargo@r.nf 4 points 4 months ago

[-] cordlesslamp@lemmy.today 1 points 4 months ago

The thing in the thumbnail, I don't know what it's called but it's tasty AF.

[-] Cleverdawny@lemm.ee -4 points 4 months ago

I'm pretty sure I don't need to know anything about which insects people in Singapore eat

[-] Numenor@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Explain

[-] Cleverdawny@lemm.ee 9 points 4 months ago

The article says "here's everything you need to know"

While I suppose there's uses for the knowledge of what insects are legal to serve as food in Singapore, it isn't necessary knowledge unless I'm a restauranteur in Singapore thinking about insect food

this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2024
141 points (90.8% liked)

News

23388 readers
1749 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.

Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

7. No duplicate posts.

If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners.

The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
rjc@lemmy.world
Thekingoflorda@lemmy.world
Tenthrow@lemmy.world
JonsJava@lemmy.world
gedaliyah@lemmy.world
little_cow@lemmy.world
jeffw@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world