Eating ants and other insects is now possible in Brazil, and chefs seek to popularize consumption

Although it’s an idea that still turns stomachs, the consumption of insects should form an important part of human food in the future. And it’s not today that you risk putting ants and larvae on the plate: this nutritious food has been consumed for thousands of years and is already part of the diet of billions of people.

If eating insects may seem like something to fearless people, or just to fancy restaurants, it is worth noting that the farofa de içá, made from the queen of the ant ants, is a traditional part of the gastronomic culture of Vale do Paraíba, for example.

In São José do Barreiro, Rancho Gastronomia e Cultura has as its iconic dish, farofa made with the abdomen of these insects, also known as tanajuras.

Named “the caviar of caipira people” by the writer Monteiro Lobato, the içás are collected during the first thunderstorms of spring, and then prepared with flour.

In São Paulo it is also possible to eat insects in signature cuisine restaurants. At DOM, by star chef Alex Atala, ant ants, which have a flavor reminiscent of lemongrass, have been served for over a decade in different versions.

No EA! In the kitchen, chefs Ygor Lopes and Walkyria Fagundes also offer the delicacy in a starter of toasted sweet potatoes, cream cheese fonduta, macadamia nuts and… ants.

But long before they were discovered by chefs from São Paulo, ant ants were already appreciated by indigenous peoples in various parts of the country. In the Amazon, they were used as spices, to season roasts and as a key ingredient in the famous black tucupi.

And not only ants live the Brazilian market. Created in 2018, startup Hakkuna develops natural foods and supplements based on crickets. According to Luiz Filipe Carvalho, one of the founders of the brand, there are few insect breeders for food in Brazil.

“We realized that access to raw material in Brazil is scarce. There are very few breeders and breeding is very dispersed. That’s how, with the support of Fapesp [Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo] in partnership with Esalq [Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz]we developed the technology for creating insects under controlled and specific conditions for food purposes”, he says.

Today, they produce about 200 kg of live crickets a month that are either turned into flour or dehydrated, flavored and eaten as snacks.

At the Mexican restaurant Metzi, in Pinheiros, chefs Eduardo Ortiz and Luana Sabino have served different insects in different ways. Ortiz warns, however, that in his country of origin the consumption of insects has decreased and increased.

“Today in Mexico we are trying to preserve the consumption of insects. The main problem is that there is no production system, but a collection system, which makes the product very expensive”, he explains.

“Also, more and more people are disgusted by these animals, even though most of them have more iron than, for example, beef.”

In Uganda, insect collection is also common and constitutes an important source of income for the local population. The English short-film documentary “Nsenene”, by director Michelle Coomber, available on Vimeo, tells more about the tradition of hunting locusts in the African country, usually eaten fried with onions and peppers.

Captured by bright lights, which attract swarms of animals, they are intoxicated with strong smoke, thus falling onto metal sheets. From there they go straight to the preparation.

There are records of academic research that encourage anthropoentomophagy — or the human practice of eating insects and their products. Especially because, compared to cattle, most insect species require less consumption of natural resources.

For this reason, insects have become important topics in discussions about food sustainability. For the nutritionist at the Institute of Psychiatry at the Hospital das Clínicas of the Faculty of Medicine of USP (HC-Fmusp), Adriana Kachani, in the not too distant future the population will increasingly adhere to the consumption of insects.

“The new generations demand a more sustainable diet, which the production of insects provides. In addition, insects provide a high protein load at low costs”, he adds.

The benefits of insects in human food, explains the doctor, also extend to the field of prebiotics, as the skeleton of animals is made of chitin, whose fibers feed the beneficial bacteria that live in the human intestine.

But despite the great benefits of this delicacy, Adriana makes an important warning: “Even with a great potential to become a “superfood”, we have to be careful with the consumption of insects. Like other invertebrates, the shell of insects can cause allergies “, it says.