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Acceptance of entomophagy among Canadians at an insectarium

15 points by PaulHoule

by pavel_lishin

0 subcomment

> Participants completed a structured questionnaire evaluating willingness to consume various insect-based foods, motivations and barriers, and demographic predictors of acceptance.
Neat, I guess, but I really expected this study to actually offer people insects to eat.
A "yes" on a questionnaire feels about as relevant and actionable as a "maybe" on an event invite.

by AlexandrB

1 subcomments

This kind of stuff faces the same problems as vegetable-based meat replacement products. While traditional vegetarian dishes like various bean dishes, Indian curries, salads, etc. can be quite healthy and require minimal processing, meat substitute products like Beyond Meat are heavily processed. This means they're often not that healthy (containing a lot of salt and added fat) despite being technically vegan while also being expensive and requiring energy-intensive industrial food processing.
Based on the findings here:
> These emotional reactions were particularly prominent for unprocessed or visually apparent insect formats, reinforcing the view that entomophagy challenges deeply anchored cultural expectations about what constitutes acceptable food. Given this barrier, product formats that conceal or process insects can reduce sensory aversion and facilitate initial acceptance.
Any kind of "insect food" is likely to go the same way resulting in heavily processed products with added sugar, salt, and fat to make them palatable. Even then it's a really tough sell given all the "live in the pod, eat the bug" memes out there.
Finally, I struggle to see how insects would be a more economical source of protein than beans or processed foods derived from beans like Beyond Meat and various soy products.

by olalonde

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Coincidentally, that's where I ate my first insects as a kid. I was fond of the chocolate covered grasshoppers. The museum also had an impressive butterfly collection.

by meta_1995

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no discussion about how the authors controlled for respondents from non-western backgrounds
how can we know, for example, that the higher acceptance from those with more postgraduate education is simply that they're just migrants from nonwestern societies
flawed study

by something765478

2 subcomments

I always found it funny that even though many people are reluctant to eat insects themselves, they have no problem with eating insect vomit (aka honey). I suspect that getting people to eat more insects is just a matter of marketing; after all, the "best", most expensive coffee in the world is made of out civet poop.

by FpUser

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Let the politicians lead by example. As for "acceptance" - wake me up when I see fried crickets sold in grocery stores and people actively buying it. I think articles like this are propaganda made to sway people's opinion so that the corporations might add more crap to products to save on costs

by 9864247888754

0 subcomment