14 DAY TRIAL // As the world's population is steadily increasing, researchers are bending over backwards trying to come up with ways to feed all the people inhabiting our planet, while keeping the ecological impact of the food industry at a minimum.
The way a team of researchers currently working with the London South Bank University see things, turning insects into eco-friendly and pleasantly crunchy snacks might just help sort out this issue.
Daily Mail tells us that these brainiacs have recently used ground up critters such as dung beetles, worms and crickets to make tasty and nutritious treats.
More precisely, they first turned the creatures into a fine powder that looked much like the flower that folks are all too accustomed with.
They then mixed this powder with various food products, i.e. icing butter, chocolate, spices and even cream cheese, and used a 3D printer to roll out crunchy and surprisingly sweet snacks.
“We are using this very hi-tech printing ability to try to encourage people to consider a new protein source,” explained specialist Susana Soares.
“We would like to do things like printing cake toppings, flowers and designs. If we can get a substantial structure we can print bars, like cereal bars,” the researcher went on to explain.
The chief advantage of turning insects and other critters into snacks is that, because these treats look somewhat familiar, people are likely to be more willing to give them a try.
For the time being, the eco-friendly snacks that the London South Bank University researchers created as part of their Insects au Gratin project are not available for purchase.
However, the researchers hope that, sometime in the not so distant future, they will be able to make them available to the general public.
“The snacks aren’t likely to be on sale any time soon - they are prototypes, experimenting with the technology, but its potential application is huge,” a spokesperson for the University told the press.
Furthermore, “This isn’t just about a food solution for the developing world: Researchers predict that, in 10-20 years’ time every kitchen will have a 3D printer so, in theory you would just pour your ground insect powder into the printer and it would print out your meal.”