7Berkeh: The European Union recently announced that locusts are nutritious and safe and can be added to the list of food and feed in Europe. Is it time to send our recipes to European restaurants?
Eating locusts is a long-standing tradition among people of the south of Fars, Iran, as well as many other parts of the world. Now, “as part of the bloc’s push towards more sustainable farming and diets”, according to Reuters, the European Union added locusts to its list of approved food on Friday, November 12, 2021. The European Commission approved that locusts are “high in protein with no safety concerns” and “would be marketed as a snack or as a food ingredient either in dried or frozen form with wings and legs removed or as powder.”
In Gerash, locusts are usually roasted with a seasoning of salt, pepper and lemon juice, and then served as a snack. This is the way Mexicans prepare their grasshoppers, according to Washington Post (here) and call it “chapulines”.
