Insects could give meaty taste to food – and help environment – scientists find

Scientists have discovered that insects can be turned into meat-like flavors.

Mealworms have been cooked with sugar in order to create a meat-like flavor that could one day be used in convenience food.

Mealworms have potential as a food source for humans to help get the recognizable flavors of meat without the harmful impacts on the climate, as well as direct air and water pollution.

According to In Hee Cho, a researcher at Wonkwang University in South Korea who led the study, insects are a good source of vitamins, minerals and fiber.

Many consumers like to eat animal products. Cars emit less greenhouse gas emissions than traditional livestock farming. In comparison to traditional livestock farming, insect farming requires less land, water, and feed.

Mealworms and crickets have long been eaten by people in Asia, Africa and South America. People in Europe and North America are less interested in eating insects than they are in other things.

Researchers think mealworms may be able to bridge the gap. The new study, which will be presented to the American Chemical Society this week, found that the flavors were released when mealworms were heated with sugars.

Different cooking processes produce different results. The roasted and deep- fried mealworms have a similar smell to shrimp. Volunteers were used in sniff tests to determine the most meat-like favors of those fakes.

The raising of animals for meat is the main cause of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Cow burps, mass destruction of land to make way for pastures, and planet-warming emissions are some of the things that consume 80% of Earth's farmland.

According to scientists, avoiding meat and diary products is the single biggest way to reduce your environmental impact, even though meat eating is still popular in the west.

According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, insects, which can be raised in vast numbers in small spaces with a fraction of the pollution of traditional meat, are a potentially valuable source of food.