Insects could make food taste meaty – and help the environment – ​​according to scientists

Insects can be turned into meat flavors, helping to provide a greener alternative to traditional meat options, scientists have found.

Mealworms, the larval form of the yellow mealworm beetle, have been cooked with sugar by researchers who have found the result is a meat-like flavor that could one day be used in ready meals as a source of protein.

While mealworms have so far been used primarily as snacks for pets or as bait when fishing, they have the potential as a food source for humans to help obtain the recognizable flavors of meat without the harmful effects on the climate, as well as direct air and water pollution, from raising beef, pork and other foods of animal origin.

< p class="dcr-xry7m2">“Inse cts are a nutritious and healthy food source with high amounts of fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, fiber and high quality meat-like protein says In Hee Cho, a researcher at Wonkwang University in South Korea who led the study.

"Many consumers are serious about animal protein and crave it. need in their diet. However, traditional animal husbandry produces more greenhouse gas emissions than cars. On the other hand, insect farming requires only a fraction of the land, water and feed compared to traditional farming.

Cho said edible insects, such as mealworms and crickets, have long been "superfoods" enjoyed by communities in Asia, Africa and South America. However, people in Europe and North America are generally more reluctant to eat insects, despite recent forays by several restaurants and supermarkets to offer insect options to consumers.

Using mealworms as a meat flavoring can help bridge that gap, researchers hope. The new study, which will be presented at the American Chemical Society this week, found that flavors were released when mealworms were heated with sugars, with the proteins and sugars interacting and caramelizing into a range of meaty flavors. and salted.

Different cooking processes produced different results, the researchers found. The steamed mealworms give off a kind of sweet corn aroma, while the roasted and fried versions are more like shrimp. A panel of volunteers was used in sniff tests to determine the most meat-like favors among those concocted.

World food production is responsible for about a third of all greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere, with the raising of animals for meat being responsible for the majority of these emissions. Grazing and feeding livestock consumes approximately 80% of Earth's agricultural land, with everything from cow burps to massive deforestation of land to make way for pasture causing global warming emissions.

Scientists say avoiding meat and dairy is the best way to reduce your environmental impact on the planet, although eating meat remains popular in the West and is now gaining traction among a emerging wealthy class in China and India.

Insects, which can be reared in large numbers in small spaces with a fraction of the pollution of traditional meat, have been cited by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations as a potentially valuable source of protein to feed a growing world population expected to top 9 billion by 2050.