$4.3 Million Prize for Making Insects into Food

Photo by Eric Bégin

The European Commission is offering a $4.32 million prize to the group that comes up with the best idea for developing insects as a popular food.

The Commission is counting on cattle and other large animals being an increasingly untenable source of protein in decades to come, and hopes that some research group will be able to devise ways to convince people to eat insects despite the inherent “yuck” value.

The EC is also helping support a project by the UK Food Standards agency to investigate the nutritional value of insects. Insect meat is much lower in fat, and higher in calcium, than beef or pork. But the UK study is looking especially hard at any risks presented by eating insects.

Photo by Eric Bégin.

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