Edible insects may become the answer to the question of the global food security. A researcher from the University of Adelaide, Australia currently conducts a research to investigate people's perception and attitudes to insects as a source of protein.
The research is led by an Associate Professor from the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine at the University of Adelaide, Dr. Kerry Wilkinson. She and her team have just finished an insect tasting challenge to people at the Adelaide Central Market on Thursday and Friday, June 8 to 9. They provided black ants, roasted crickets and chocolate chip mealworm cookies for tasting to passerby and asked them to fill in the survey.
One of Dr. Wilkinson's team member, a postdoctoral fellow Anna Crump, who led the tasting project was surprised to see the enthusiasm of people to try the edible insects as reported by The Adelaide Review. Many food adventurers stopped by at the tasting booth and tried to taste the insects.
“The clientele of these markets would be people who are more novelty seeking anyway," Crump said about the visitors of edible insects testing at the Adelaide Central Market. “People are looking for different products and they’re willing to try new things.”
Furthermore, the growing curiosity for the new and exotic food has led people to be interested in trying the edible insects. In term of the taste, people could not tell the difference between mealworm from the regular biscuit, and they also loved the nice crunch and nutty flavor of the roasted crickets. However, they need some time to adjust to the taste of black ants.
This research of edible insects is the continuation of Dr. Wilkinson's research project that she began in 2015. She believes that edible insects hold the key for the global food security once people are adjusted to its taste.
