Bug appétit | Is India prepared for insect protein?

On my farm in Kodaikanal, bugs had been ‘signallers’: fireflies in August meant it was going to be monsoon, aphids meant my neighbours had been spraying pesticides, and the literal hundreds of winged termites that may hover below each lightbulb in my home, only for a couple of days yearly, meant the monsoon was beginning.

I ought to have understood, when each creature from ants to my cats and canine ate the termites that had fallen to the bottom, their wings singed by the bulbs, that there was extra to them than met the attention. However it was a lot later that I discovered that ‘eesal’ (Tamil for winged termites) was a standard delicacy, owing to the few days a yr they had been obtainable.

I’m considering of the eesal, curry leaf, mustard and purple chilly poriyal (a sautéed dish) that my neighbour had taught me to make, when Tansha Vohra provides me a chutney at her session on the Previous GMC Advanced in Goa. “Coriander, salt, onion, chilly… and purple weaver ants,” she says, including with a smile, “No lime,” simply as I pucker my lips on the tangy sourness of the ants’ formic acid. It’s scrumptious.

Vohra, a London-based meals anthropologist and author — and speaker on the current ‘Imagining Bugs – Rethink Style, Disgust and Delight’ speak at Serendipity Arts Competition — stumbled upon weaver ants in 2018. She disturbed a nest in a cacao tree whereas attempting to reap cocoa beans, a month into her internship at Rosie and Peter Fernandes’ edible forest backyard in Goa. There was no approach she may attain the fruit with out destroying the nest, and when Fernandes shared they had been edible, she took issues into her personal fingers and harvested her first ‘crop’. The remaining is historical past.

She now recurrently harvests ants. “I’ve discovered them throughout the nation. They nest in nearly any tree,” she says, because the younger man throughout from me takes a tentative spoonful of the chutney. “I’ve even discovered them on ardour fruit vines.” It takes two folks no less than to reap, she provides; you want somebody to catch the rain of ants when you break the nest off the department they connect themselves to. “However that simply means you find yourself introducing another person to the thrill of consuming weaver ants.”

Tansha Vohra
| Photograph Credit score:
Courtesy The Boochi Venture

Weaver ant chutney
| Photograph Credit score:
Courtesy The Boochi Venture

At the moment, Vohra retains a bag of ants in her freezer always (freezing them is one of the best ways to protect their formic acid), which can sound unusual for somebody who grew up in Bengaluru, and loves going to bookstores and parks, however she is genuinely excited concerning the potential entomophagy, or the apply of consuming bugs, provides for the way forward for humanity. As a fellow permaculturalist, she tells me how it’s a excellent instance of the “downside changing into the answer”. (Permaculture is a system of designing ecosystems that mimic nature, and goals to cut back waste, enhance biodiversity, and defend wildlife.)

Fernandes, her permaculture mentor, agrees. “Local weather change is a actuality now, and the crops used to feed livestock are being affected by it. The quantity of water, area and assets wanted for the same quantity of protein is drastically lowered when farming bugs,” he says. “Furthermore, the adjustments in temperature trigger trauma to livestock, which bugs can simply be insulated from.”

Environmental impression

Fernandes is a convert, too. He began harvesting black soldier fly larvae and weaver ants throughout the early days of lockdown and, with some on-line assist, now develops his personal recipes. Vohra shares a favorite: “We discovered the fly larvae breeding in a compost heap that was too moist. We fried them with garlic in their very own fats, and served them butterflied like a prawn, which is what they tasted like!”

Peter Fernandes 
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular association

After I carry up the gross/connoisseur dichotomy that edible bugs discover themselves in, she brings up sushi. “Individuals mentioned the identical issues about sushi at first, and now it’s a world phenomenon. I consider bugs have that potential. It’s a multi-million greenback trade; it’s good for the surroundings; it’s good for our well being; they usually style nice.” The statistics show her proper: the worldwide edible bugs market dimension was valued at $1.35 billion in 2024 and is anticipated to develop at a CAGR of 25.1% from 2025 to 2030, in accordance with American consulting agency Grand View Analysis.

She insists, nevertheless, that she is in it wholly for the style. I consider her. “You gained’t guess it,” she exclaims mid-interview, “however rhino beetle larvae style precisely like bacon.”

Vohra now runs a programme with Serendipity Arts Foundations known as The Boochi Venture. Kicked off in 2021, it’s devoted to researching entomophagy in India. She collects recipes from across the nation that use edible bugs, in addition to researches and develops recipes of her personal — from fermenting weaver ants and making a grasshopper miso, to discovering new edible species, such because the savoury rhino beetles.

Chocolate-dipped black soldier fly larvae
| Photograph Credit score:
Courtesy The Boochi Venture

Insect protein market

Greater than 2,300 insect species globally are thought-about edible; they’re each aquatic and terrestrial. Whereas most are foraged, some are actually farmed on a big scale in international locations such because the U.S., France, Thailand, Denmark, China, South Africa, and Canada. In 2023, Singapore-based multi-million greenback firm Entobel inaugurated its largest insect protein manufacturing facility in Vietnam for black soldier fly larvae to “produce practical insect-based elements for animal feed and well being”. In India, Insectifii in Bengaluru, additionally farms bugs for animal feed.

Vohra believes the time is true to market bugs for people, with rampant gymnasium tradition, menopausal ladies understanding their physique’s want for protein and, after all, the exceptional rise of Ozempic — which requires folks to extend protein of their weight-reduction plan. Everybody needs to include 30g of protein per meal, and bugs are terribly excessive in it. The Indian weaver ant, for instance, is reported to be 55.27% protein; evaluate that with 26% in beef, 27% in hen or 33% in rabbit.

Lobeno Mozhui, a zoologist from Nagaland College with a Ph.D within the dietary worth and medicinal makes use of of edible bugs, says, “In conventional Naga societies, bugs are various protein and vitality sources. They’re thought-about extra priceless when it comes to nutrient content material than another typical meat supply. As an illustration, after heavy guide labour, the tribal folks eat cooked dragon nymphs and water larvae to rejuvenate themselves.”

Lobeno Mozhui
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular association

She factors to how SDG 2 (Sustainable Improvement Purpose 2), a department of the United Nations that focuses on eradicating world starvation, is at this time significantly wanting into edible bugs as a solution to rising malnutrition, and its Meals and Agriculture Group has already began advocating edible bugs for future meals safety.

The main target just isn’t solely on bugs, however the whole conventional meals system — to attain meals safety, improved diet, and sustainability. “So, all of us want to return out of the disgust issue and concentrate on what’s wholesome,” says Mozhui.

Mapping India’s edible bugs

The politics of meals

Sadly, the fact is that meals in India is closely entwined with an individual’s socio-economic and political standing, and promoting bugs as a type of protein in a rustic the place being vegetarian is equated with purity appears troublesome. Mumbai-based Gitika Saikia, an Assamese residence prepare dinner, has been a long-time advocate of edible bugs. Belonging to the Kachari group, she has fond reminiscences as a toddler of gathering water beetles from close by ponds and silkworm pupae from mulberry timber to take residence. “Throughout Bihu, we have now a meals ritual to organize a dish with 101 inexperienced greens. However it’s typically not possible to gather so many alternative varieties. So, we eat weaver ants, with the idea that it has ingested all these greens,” she shares.

Gitika Saikia
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular association

Saikia has labored with cooks similar to Manu Chandra and Prateek Sadhu and eating places like The Bombay Canteen, collaborating for Assamese meals pop-ups and sharing her data of bugs. She’s even appeared on the Netflix present Menu Please in 2020. Sadly, she confronted backlash after the present was streamed, with trolls asking her to take away movies of edible silkworm pupae from her Fb web page and telling her “to return to China to eat these bugs”.

Stir-fried silkworm pupae
| Photograph Credit score:
Gitika Saikia

However she didn’t give in to strain. “I’m pleased with the meals of my group and I didn’t carry a single put up down,” she says, including that from subsequent month, she is planning to supply water beetles, silkworm pupae and weaver ants from Assam (which she needed to cease throughout the pandemic) and unfold the phrase on entomophagy. “This can be a custom I actually need to revive.”

Elsewhere in Maharashtra, Shahu Patole, writer of Dalit Kitchens of Marathwada, can empathise with Saikia. “There’s fixed social humiliation of some folks due to what they eat. It’s the proper of every human to freely select what they need to eat, but when the meals is linked to faith or politics, there’ll at all times be backlash,” he says. Whereas bugs don’t play a big function in Patole’s group’s weight-reduction plan, honey bee larvae is far coveted. They’re fastidiously collected throughout summer season, when the colony is at peak manufacturing, and are eaten tossed with purple chilli powder and onions.

Honey bee larvae
| Photograph Credit score:
Shahu Patole

Nevertheless, what Patole really opened my eyes to is an issue extra covert than the apparent judgement that the “brahmanisation’ of India’s meals has resulted in. It’s the challenge of when Dalits (and others) begin internalising this dialogue and really feel ashamed of the meals traditions they grew up with. “The disgrace Dalits really feel about their meals is basically depending on the area they dwell in, making it clear it’s society that creates the issue.”

“In India, the idea of edible bugs continues to be rising. Cultural preferences and dietary habits play vital roles on this hesitation. The event of insect-based meals [such as snacks and protein bars] faces challenges, together with regulatory hurdles. Nevertheless, as world curiosity in sustainable protein sources grows, it’s potential that Indian entrepreneurs and firms might discover this sector sooner or later. Additionally, whereas the Indian restaurant scene has not extensively embraced edible bugs, there are area of interest cases [like Papa’s in Mumbai and Farmlore in Bengaluru].”Vicky RatnaniChef

Inside conventional kitchens

There’s little to be ashamed of, particularly when consuming bugs has lengthy been an integral a part of culinary heritage amongst many communities throughout India. From Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Jharkhand, to Tamil Nadu and the Andaman Islands, over 500 varieties are eaten, in accordance with Ashoka Belief for Analysis in Ecology and the Setting (ATREE). Whereas winged termites and weaver ants are the commonest, grownup bees and bee larvae, wasps, crickets, silkworm pupae and larvae, beetles, grasshoppers, locusts, snails and large water bugs are all eaten.

The strategies of figuring out, gathering, and making ready bugs are a part of tribal customized, and infrequently, they’re cooked in related methods — principally fried or roasted with spices, or made right into a chutney. As an illustration, in Nagaland, bee larvae are roasted and eaten like a snack, in Tamil Nadu winged termites are fried and eaten as a facet dish, in Chhattisgarh, ant chutney is a delicacy, and in Manipur and Mizoram, silkworm larvae and pupae are eaten uncooked with salt and chilli.

Ati Atier from Kohima began Oyas Umami, a catering firm in Goa in 2019, the place she serves up a contemporary tackle her native Naga delicacies. She grew up along with her grandparents who had been farmers from Mopungchuket village. “Each time we went out to the fields, we might catch bugs to carry again to eat. We ate huge bellied spiders and cicadas throughout the onset of summer season. I liked gathering water beetles that swam within the ponds for dinner,” she says, including how they typically grew what the larvae wish to eat — like mulberry for silkworm larvae.

Ati Atier
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular association

Atier remembers catching weaver ants from mango timber, shaking their nests with a pole and gathering them once they fell. One of the best half is that bugs are nonetheless a giant a part of their weight-reduction plan. “Within the markets, we have now grasshoppers, locusts, wooden worms, rhino beetles, winged termites, and hornets. Silkworm larvae are served in eating places. The youth nonetheless eat them,” she says. And with vacationers all for attempting them, she hopes the curiosity will unfold.

Whereas there are at the moment no nutritionists in India significantly recommending bugs as a type of protein, loads of research show their dietary supremacy. Particularly following a 2013 paper printed by the U.N.’s Meals and Agriculture Group titled ‘Edible Bugs: Future Prospects for Meals and Dietary Safety’, which advised that bugs have the potential to develop into one of many staple meals of the long run.

A research by life science consulting agency Halloran and others acknowledged that “edible bugs not solely fulfil every day vitality and nutrient necessities, but in addition include important amino acids, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, zinc, iron, and fibre. As well as… [they] additionally include practical parts like chitin, phenols, antioxidants, and antimicrobial peptides, which have potential advantages for immune assist and illness prevention in people”.

Ants on the dinner plate

Mumbai’s newest ‘it’ restaurant, Papa’s from Starvation Inc. Hospitality — a 12-seater led by chef Hussain Shahzad, the place your fellow visitor may very well be Dua Lipa (the British-Albanian singer dined there earlier than her live performance final November) — has purple ants on their menu. ‘Bugs Bunny’ is a grilled rabbit marinated in sundried weaver ants from Jharkhand. “We supply our purple ants from a candy potato farmer. He collects and dehydrates them for us. The dehydration course of helps prolong their shelf life,” Shahzad explains.

Bugs Bunny
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular association

Whereas he believes that bugs are going to be a future meals, he’s extra practical about when they are going to be adopted. “I do assume bugs, particularly ants, will develop into a sustainable supply of protein sooner or later. With the way in which issues are [at the moment], it’s not one thing that’ll occur within the subsequent 10 years, however perhaps within the subsequent 20 or 30 years.” For now although, he says, “They create style, texture, and a way of journey to our tasting menu at Papa’s.”

Chef Hussain Shahzad
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular association

Raaj Sanghvi, CEO of Culinary Tradition, a platform for restaurant rankings, chef awards, and culinary content material manufacturing, added ‘Bugs Bunny’ to his Greatest Plates of 2024. “Bugs have lengthy been part of effective eating menus at among the world’s high eating places. Alex Atala, Brazil’s most well-known chef, has been a vocal advocate of entomophagy. After I dined at his two-Michelin-starred DOM in São Paulo, he served me a big Amazonian leaf-cutter ant positioned on a slice of pineapple as a starter,” he says. “However bugs haven’t achieved mainstream acceptance in India but. Cooks and eating places might want to do extra to shift perceptions for it to develop into the subsequent huge meals pattern.”

Amazonian leaf-cutter ant positioned on a slice of pineapple at two-Michelin-starred DOM in São Paulo
| Photograph Credit score:
Raaj Sanghvi

Ants on a Shrimp at Noma’s Kyoto pop-up 
| Photograph Credit score:
Raaj Sanghvi

Combating diner aversion

ATREE has made it a precedence to analysis edible bugs for meals safety. They’ve documented the numerous species throughout the Northeast to protect the normal data of their consumption, and are growing alternative ways, similar to drying and grinding them into powder, to garner curiosity. Priyadarsanan Dharma Rajan, a researcher and senior fellow who, together with three others, ‘found’ three species of edible stink beetles final yr, says, “Not solely in Northeast India, however many indigenous and a few mainstream communities in the remainder of India eat bugs. Now we have documented greater than 500 species being consumed by folks, nearly all sourced from the wild. However a surge in demand from the skin market may result in overharvesting from the wild, and will pose a menace to insect populations. So, it’s essential to develop rearing and agronomic strategies for a wider vary of species.”

Large hornets with sichuan pepper and tree tomato
| Photograph Credit score:
Courtesy The Boochi Venture

He feels India must be ready for the worldwide edible insect market, even when they don’t develop into mainstream right here. “With its tropical local weather characterised by beneficial sizzling and wet seasons, the nation has good potential for insect farming. Furthermore, the supply of natural waste can function a available and sustainable feed supply for them. These elements contribute to India having a really excessive potential for growing insect farming.

Most not too long ago, purple weaver ant chutney or kai chutney from Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district was awarded a geographical indication (GI) tag. It seems like it’s time to put squeamishness apart and dig in.

The author is a permaculture farmer who believes consuming proper can save the planet.