Daily Mail - 13.08.2019

Page 49

HOW do these foodstuffs fare in a taste

test? Charlotte Payne, of Cambridge

University, sampled five for us...

EAT GRUB SMOKY BBQ

CRUNCHY ROASTED CRICKETS

12g, £1.59, Sainsbury’s stores

THESE 1.5cm dried crickets are

sprinkled with barbecue season-

ing and have a satisfying crunch,

like crisps, and that characteristic

umami flavour. Eat them as they are or put

them on pizza, or on flatbread with hum-

mus. They are high in animal fat, so use

them like crispy bacon to enhance, not

overwhelm, a meal.

EAT CRAWLERS BLACK ANTS

10g, £9.90, futurefoodshop.com

THEY look like mushy blackberries, are

rich in iron and zinc, have a strong stock

cube-like smell and I wouldn’t want to eat

them by the handful. The maker suggests

sprinkling them like ‘seasoning’ and I sus-

pect they’d go best with stir fries or sushi.

CRUNCHY CRITTERS, MIXED

20g, £6.49, crunchycritters.com

THE pack says these dried, unfla-

voured buffalo worms, crickets,

mealworms and locusts can be

‘nibbled or cooked’, but I’d rec-

ommend cooking — they are

bland otherwise. Cover in boiling

water for six minutes to rehydrate, then

fry with onions and garlic, like prawns. I’d

happily serve them at a dinner party.

JIMINI’S GRANOLA

WITH BUFFALO WORM FLOUR

250g, £5, jiminis.co.uk

THIS contains just 4 per cent flour made

from buffalo worms, which are similar to

mealworms, so it is not surprising that it

doesn’t taste of insects at all. It is probably

a product for those who like having a

granola breakfast and want to give it an

extra something. The firm says the buffalo

worms (beetle larvae) are ‘naturally high

in protein, a great source of iron and con-

tain eight essential amino acids’.

THAILAND UNIQUE DRIED

SAGO WORMS

10g, £4.40,

thailandunique.com

THESE live in the trunk of palm

trees and, eaten fresh, are

considered a delicacy — big, fatty

and creamy. It may be worth experiment-

ing with rehydrating them. They are high

in fat and also a source of protein, so if

they regain their creamy texture, they

could be an interesting alternative to king

prawns or paneer.

Daily Mail, Tuesday, August 13, 2019

By FIONA

MACRAE

WHEN IT COMES TO THE CRUNCH

microscope

CAN YOU RUN UP THE STAIRS?

YES, fitness is very important to me.

I try to do a something every day and

mix it up a bit — going to the gym is

too boring. I do a 5k run and then

boxing, gymnastics or dancing.

GET YOUR FIVE A DAY?

I AM not really a five-a-day person, I

just eat as and when I can. I am a carb

maniac. I could over-indulge very

easily on pizza and pasta.

EVER DIETED?

ABOUT five years ago, I went on a diet

before a tour. It was low-carb with a

lot of protein, good fats and greens. It

was difficult to do, but it worked.

ANY VICES?

I DO love a Guinness. My fiancee,

Sarah Richards [a former backing

singer with JLS], loves chocolate but I

will just take a square and put the rest

back in the fridge. A vanilla latte or an

iced coffee always goes down well.

EVER HAVE PLASTIC SURGERY?

NEVER say never. I have tattoos, but I

don’t think I’d ever get any removed.

They are a part of me.

WORST ILLNESS?

AN OPERATION to correct damaged

nerves on my left foot when I was a

teenager. I was on crutches for a few

months and it stopped me trying to

follow a professional football

career. Before that I’d

played in the Sunday

League and was going for

trials. There is still a part of

my foot I can’t really feel.

ANY FAMILY AILMENTS?

MY DAD is diabetic and my

mum’s dad had bowel cancer

and cancer behind his eye,

which he survived. He is

amazing, as tough as nails.

HAD ANYTHING REMOVED?

I HAD root canal work to remove

nerves from a tooth.

TRIED ALTERNATIVE REMEDIES?

ALL THE time. If anything feels

inflamed or in need of attention, I go

to Darren Chandler, an osteopath.

EVER BEEN DEPRESSED?

NOTHING ever goes 100 per cent right

for any artist all the time, so there

have been moments when I’ve been

down. But I’m quite strong-minded so

always pick myself up.

HANGOVER CURE?

HYDRATION tablets [which provide

sugar and salts when mixed with

water] which I think are quite good.

WHAT KEEPS YOU AWAKE?

GETTING enough sleep was a problem

when my baby son Grayson’s teeth

were coming through, but not now.

I’m a bit of a night owl and tend to get

by on six hours, seven if I am lucky.

I would love a bit more.

ANY PHOBIAS?

I USED to have a big phobia of dogs. It

took me about 20 years to get over it.

LIKE TO LIVE FOR EVER?

NOT if it meant everyone else that I

knew and loved was going to leave

me. A long, healthy life with loved

ones would be brilliant.

n ASTON is supporting Tesco

Dance Beats, a dance-themed

fundraiser. tesco.com/dancebeats.

Aston

Merrygold, 31,

former

member of

boy band JLS,

answers our

health quiz

Interview by ROZ LEWIS

Under the

Last November Sainsbury’s

became the first UK supermarket

to sell crickets. Now,

supermarkets and websites offer

everything from crunchy whole

cricket snacks, to insect flour,

and granola peppered with

powdered beetle larvae.

however, Charlotte Payne, a

zoologist at Cambridge Univer-

sity who has studied edible

insects for the past eight years,

cautions there are many

unknowns about the nutritional

value of insects, which are gen-

erally raised on ‘insect farms’ in

Canada, the Netherlands and

other parts of the Continent.

‘One thing to look out for is

adult versus larval insects —

these have quite different nutri-

tional compositions,’ she says.

‘With larvae, you expect quite

a lot of fat, adults are leaner

with more protein. Crickets and

mealworms are low in fat and

high in protein. Other insects

can be high in cholesterol.’

her research found palm

weevil larvae (also known as the

sago worm) to be particularly

high in cholesterol.

And while certain breeds might

well be high in particular health-

boosting nutrients, it is unclear

how well the human body can

use them. ‘We don’t know any-

thing about the real health

effects,’ she adds. ‘What we

haven’t done is controlled trials

with humans, seeing what hap-

pens when they switch from eat-

ing meat to eating insects. That

is going to be important.’

Preliminary Swiss research

funded by the Wellcome Trust

suggests eating insects rich in

iron, a mineral essential for mak-

ing blood, doesn’t actually boost

levels of iron in people.

It may be that the human body

lacks the necessary enzymes to

process the insect iron. Those

who are allergic to shellfish are

advised to avoid eating insects

because they contain some

closely related proteins.

That said, the ‘yuck factor’ is

probably one of the biggest

barriers to edible insects

becoming the norm.

Dr Simon Steenson, a nutri-

tion scientist at the British

Nutrition Foundation, says:

‘Although many of us may have

an aversion to eating whole

crickets, insects can be added

as a powder to flour used to

make pasta or biscuits which

may be more acceptable.’

T

he food tsar says they

could be a new way of

feeding Britain, Ange-

lina Jolie says she likes

hers ‘with a beer’ and

Barclays bank claims they

could be as popular as sushi.

edible insects are creating a buzz.

They may not be on your lunch menu

just yet, but more than two billion

people around the world already

supplement their diet with insects,

and crickets, mealworms and other

creepy crawlies are set to become

increasingly popular in the UK.

earlier this summer, henry

Dimbleby, co-founder of Leon res-

taurants and non-executive board

member of the Department for envi-

ronment, Food and Rural Affairs,

who is leading a review of england’s

food system, said that edible insects

could form part of the country’s first

national food strategy for 75 years.

Their appeal is that they are

environmentally friendly, because

they take up fewer natural resources

than rearing livestock, and are also a

healthy alternative to meat.

For example, 100g of crickets

contains 121 calories, 12.9g of pro-

tein, 5.5g of fat. This, says the UN

Food and Agriculture Organisation,

compares favourably with meat, as

while 100g of ground beef has more

protein, it is also much higher in fat.

A study last month from Teramo

University in Italy found silkworms

have twice the level of antioxidants

— chemicals that protect our cells

from damage and ageing — as olive

oil. Crickets, meanwhile, pack almost

as much of an antioxidant punch as

fresh orange juice.

A

LL of which might help

explain why Barclays

predicts the global market

for edible insects could be

worth almost £6.5 billion by 2030.

In the recently published report,

Insect Protein: Bitten By The Bug,

Barclays analyst emily Morrison

says that just as sushi was once

considered ‘weird and wacky’, insects

could soon become ‘mainstream’.

Would you eat

insects

sold at

Championed by the food tsar, they’re low

in fat and packed with vitamin C. But...

Sainsbury’s?