Singapore Approves 16 Types of Insects as Food
If you plan on visiting Singapore, you may soon need to take a careful look at the menu when you go to a restaurant, or you might end up being served a bowl of deep-fried locusts.
It might sound — and look — unappealing, but locusts are among the 16 insects the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) has said are safe to eat.
Grasshoppers, honey bees and mealworms are also on the list.
Right now, it's not common to eat insects in Singapore, but the SFA has released guidelines to make sure any insects that might be put on the menu will be safe for people to eat.
The guidelines say the insects cannot be taken from the wild, and documentation is needed to show they were farmed on regulated premises.
But why insects?
Research has found that there are about 2,100 types of edible insects. They are a good source of protein, and farming them is far more environmentally friendly than farming other sources of protein, such as beef.
In fact, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization has been trying to encourage people to include insects in their diets for years.
And while eating insects may be new in Singapore, you can find different types of insect dishes in other countries. For example, you can eat grasshopper tacos in Mexico, bread made from crickets in Finland, or silkworm soup in South Korea.
Chefs in Singapore are already thinking of interesting ways to include insects in their dishes.
According to the Straits Times, a restaurant called House of Seafood is planning to serve 30 different insect dishes, including sushi with silkworms and crickets.
