Science & Technology

'Fly factories' to produce edible insects

By T.K. Randall
November 25, 2014 ·  30 comments

A Chinese restaurant dish served with mealworms. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 Candorwien Insects could represent one of the single most effective solutions to world hunger ever conceived, that is at least according to scientists who have been developing increasingly efficient ways to farm crickets, maggots and other edible creepy crawlies en masse.

Despite being a type of cuisine that most people would be likely to turn their nose up at, insects are in fact extremely nutritious and far cheaper to produce than conventional foodstuffs as well as being a lot more environmentally friendly.Now two new 'fly factories' are opening in France and Holland in an effort to provide maggots for human consumption to the European market. Each will produce upwards of 24 tons of insects on a daily basis destined for eateries across the continent.

Insects such as mealworms and crickets are already considered a staple foodstuff in some parts of the world including Asia where some insect species are considered a traditional delicacy.

Whether the idea will ever catch on in the west however remains to be seen.

Source: Metro | Comments (30)

Tags: Maggots, Edible Insects