Representatives from the European Union’s 27 member states have approved
Tenebrio molitor beetle larvae, also known as mealworms, as “innovative” food and suitable for human consumption.
The ruling by the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (Novel Food and Toxicological Safety section) represents the next step in allowing people in the bloc to eat beetle larvae after the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) said in January that yellow mealworms were safe to eat.
Outlining why Europeans might want to eat bugs, the European Commission said when it announced the decision: “The use of insects as an alternate source of protein is not new and insects are regularly eaten in many parts of the world.”