Europeans are a step closer to finding all sorts of creepy crawlies on the menu as the EU Food Safety Agency (EFSA) has officially deemed the first such species a yellow mealworm, to be specific safe to eat.
The development means that people buying pasta, burgers and even biscuits in a store somewhere in Europe might soon find out that their food is made of mealworms, thoroughly dried and ground into powder, while those of a more adventurous nature may be able to buy a baggie of whole dried insects as a snack.
Such possibilities are about to open up following the decision by the European food safety watchdog. The EFSA panel has concluded that dried yellow mealworms are “safe under proposed uses” and their consumption is “not nutritiously disadvantageous,” the agency said in what it called “the first completed assessment of a proposed insect-derived food product.”