Bugs in Your Food: Insect Ingredients Hiding on Store Shelves (2026 Guide)

Chitin Parasites Allergy Hidden Ingredients New in 2026 FDA Defect Limits Regenerative Beef Label Cheat Sheet FAQ

Edible insects are marketed as a sustainable protein. The pitch leaves out the parts that matter to the person eating them: an exoskeleton material humans digest poorly, parasites found in a majority of small insect farms, and an allergen shared with shrimp and dust mites. This guide covers those problems, then lists every insect-derived ingredient I can document in the food supply as of 2026, including several that did not exist in stores when I first wrote it.

Key takeaways

• Chitin, the material in insect exoskeletons, is broken down only partly by human digestion and can trigger bloating, gas, and immune activation.
• A 2019 survey of 300 small insect farms in Central Europe found parasites in 81 percent of them; in 30 percent, the parasites could infect humans.
• Insect tropomyosin cross-reacts with shrimp and dust mite tropomyosin. A shellfish or dust mite allergy is a reason to avoid cricket and mealworm products.
• Carmine (crushed cochineal insects), shellac (lac bug resin), and cricket or mealworm powder are the most common intentionally added insect ingredients in US foods.
• New since 2023: silk protein coatings on fresh produce, EU-approved mealworm powder in bread and cheese, and black soldier fly larvae in dog food.
• FDA's Defect Levels Handbook sets legal limits for insect fragments in flour, chocolate, spices, peanut butter, and dozens of other foods.
• Peer-reviewed data on regenerative grazing shows a 66 percent lower greenhouse gas footprint than commodity beef, which undercuts the environmental case for insect protein.

This article is for education only and is not medical advice. If you have a shellfish, dust mite, or insect allergy, talk to your allergist before eating any insect-derived food.

Chitin Is Poorly Digested by Humans

Evidence: biochemical and small human studies; long-term population data does not exist.

Chitin is a polysaccharide that forms insect exoskeletons, crustacean shells, and fungal cell walls. Humans carry a gene for acidic mammalian chitinase, an enzyme that cuts chitin apart.¹ One study measured chitinase activity in the stomach fluid of most people tested, so the enzyme works.² Its capacity is limited and varies between individuals, and it falls well short of what insect-eating animals like bats produce. The accurate statement is that humans digest chitin partly, not that we cannot digest it at all.

Undigested chitin passes through the gut, where it can cause bloating, gas, and loose stools in people who eat meaningful amounts. Chitin also activates innate immune pathways. In lab and animal studies it stimulates macrophages and eosinophils and has been studied as a driver of allergic airway inflammation.³ For someone with an autoimmune condition, a sensitive gut, or existing allergies, that immune activity is a reason for caution.

Advocates compare chitin to dietary fiber. The comparison skips a key point. Cellulose from plants has been part of the human diet for as long as humans have existed, and tolerance is well established. Chitin from farmed insects eaten daily in powdered form is new, and no population-level data exists on what that does over decades.

Most people feel disgust at the idea of eating bugs. In my view that response is inherited, shaped over a very long time by the need to avoid venomous, toxic, or parasite-carrying organisms. That is an opinion, not a study finding, and I hold it lightly.

Insect Farms Carry Parasites

Evidence: one large cross-sectional survey of small farms and pet stores; human transmission from farmed insects has not been studied directly.

In 2019, veterinary parasitologists in Poland published the results of testing insects from 300 household farms and pet stores across Czechia, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine. They sampled 75 operations each for mealworms, house crickets, Madagascar hissing cockroaches, and migratory locusts. Parasites turned up in 244 of the 300 sites, or 81.33 percent. In 91 sites, 30.33 percent, the parasites identified were potentially pathogenic to humans.⁴

The human-relevant organisms included Cryptosporidium, Isospora, Balantidium coli, Entamoeba histolytica, and cysticercoids of the tapeworms Hymenolepis nana and Hymenolepis diminuta. Farms that bought stock from other farms, fed insects kitchen scraps, or let insects contact other animals had significantly higher infection rates. The authors observed some breeders feeding insects animal feces, dead animals, moldy food, and raw meat.⁴

Two limits apply. These were hobby and pet-trade operations, not the large commercial farms now supplying cricket powder, and the authors state plainly that the link between edible insects and tapeworm infection in humans has not been investigated in detail. What the study does establish is that insect rearing is not clean by default and that parasites were common under the conditions tested. Cooking and freezing reduce the risk; the study recommends thermal processing before consumption for that reason.

A separate 2021 study tested 16 samples of farmed edible insects for Toxoplasma gondii and found parasite DNA in one sample of dehydrated mealworm.⁵ That is one positive out of sixteen, and DNA detection does not prove live parasites, but it shows that rearing substrates can carry contamination into a processed product. Reviews of the edible insect microbiome also report Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Clostridium, and mold species in raw and processed insects.⁶

Some Parasites Change Host Behavior

Evidence: established in animal models; the human data on Toxoplasma is observational.

Toxoplasma gondii infects the brain. In humans, latent infection has been associated with slower reaction times, higher risk-taking, and personality differences in observational studies.⁷ Those are correlations, not proof of cause, and the usual routes of infection are undercooked meat and cat litter, not insects. The point here is narrower. If an insect substrate can carry Toxoplasma DNA into a dried product, then an under-regulated food source has one more pathway that deserves monitoring.

Tapeworm larvae in mealworms do something similar to their insect host. Infected beetles become less active and avoid light, changes that make them easier prey for the rodents that complete the tapeworm's life cycle.⁸ The same parasite species were found in the 2019 farm survey.

Shellfish or Dust Mite Allergy Means Likely Insect Allergy

Evidence: laboratory cross-reactivity studies, a published case report, and an EU regulatory safety opinion.

Insects and crustaceans are both arthropods, and they share a muscle protein called tropomyosin. When researchers exposed house cricket proteins to blood serum from shrimp-allergic patients, tropomyosin was the main protein the patients' IgE antibodies bound to, and the cross-reactivity was confirmed by ELISA. Cricket tropomyosin also survived simulated digestion better than shrimp tropomyosin did, which raises the risk of sensitizing people who were not allergic before.⁹

This has moved from lab to clinic. A 2024 case report describes a 27-year-old man who reacted to a packaged cricket snack and then, days later, to shrimp. Testing showed sensitization to cricket, shrimp, and house dust mite tropomyosin.¹⁰ The European Food Safety Authority's own opinion on lesser mealworm powder states that it may cause allergic reactions in people allergic to crustaceans and dust mites, and that allergens from the insects' feed can end up in the final powder.¹¹

US labels are not required to carry an allergen warning for insect ingredients, and cricket often appears under its Latin name, Acheta domesticus. If you react to shrimp, crab, lobster, or dust mites, treat any product with cricket, mealworm, or "insect protein" on the label as something to avoid.

Insects Concentrate Heavy Metals From Their Feed

Evidence: controlled feeding studies.

Mealworms and black soldier fly larvae accumulate cadmium, lead, and arsenic from their feed. In controlled trials, black soldier fly larvae reached cadmium concentrations several times higher than the substrate they were raised on, and lead accumulated in both species.¹² Since a selling point of insect farming is raising larvae on food waste and byproducts, feed quality controls decide whether the final powder is clean. In the US there is no dedicated regulatory framework for edible insects that sets those controls.

Insect-Derived Ingredients in Common Foods

Evidence: US and EU regulatory records and product labeling.

Some insect ingredients are added on purpose as colorants, coatings, and protein. Others are permitted as contamination. This section covers the intentional ones. Read the label names carefully; several are chosen so that shoppers will not recognize them.

Carmine and Cochineal Extract (Red Dye From Crushed Beetles)

Carmine is a red pigment made from the dried, crushed bodies of female cochineal insects, a scale bug farmed on prickly pear cactus in Peru and the Canary Islands. Industry estimates put the yield at about 70,000 insects per pound of dye. It has been used as a colorant since the Aztecs and today appears wherever a stable red, pink, orange, or purple is wanted: strawberry and cherry yogurt, ice cream, candy, fruit drinks, energy drinks, flavored milk, gelatin, cake mix and frosting, sausage casings and processed meat, jam, some cheeses, and alcoholic drinks. It is also common in lipstick and blush.

FDA has documented IgE-mediated allergic reactions to carmine, including anaphylaxis. That record is why the agency issued a rule, effective January 2011, requiring "carmine" or "cochineal extract" to be spelled out on every US food and cosmetic label that contains it.¹³ Before that rule it could hide under "color added." FDA declined to require the label to say the dye comes from insects. Starbucks dropped it from its strawberry drinks in 2012 after public complaints.

Names on US food labels: carmine, cochineal extract.

Names on imported products and cosmetics: E120, C.I. 75470, Natural Red 4, carminic acid, carmine lake, crimson lake, cochineal.

Shellac and Confectioner's Glaze (Lac Bug Secretions)

The shine on jelly beans, candy corn, chocolate-covered nuts, and some supermarket apples and citrus is usually shellac. Female lac bugs (Kerria lacca) in the forests of India and Thailand feed on tree sap and secrete a hard resin that protects their eggs. The resin is scraped from branches, heated, strained, and dissolved in alcohol to make food-grade glaze. Tens of thousands of insects go into each pound.

Shellac is a permitted food coating in the US and is used on candy, chocolate goods, coated coffee beans, chewing gum, fresh fruit, pharmaceutical tablets, and supplement capsules. At the time of writing, products whose labels have listed it include candy corn, Whoppers, Milk Duds, Raisinets, Junior Mints, Sugar Babies, and many jelly beans. Check the current label, since formulas change.

Label names: shellac, confectioner's glaze, confectioner's resin, resinous glaze, candy glaze, pure food glaze, natural glaze, pharmaceutical glaze, lac resin, gum lac, E904.

Cricket Flour, Mealworm Powder, and Other Insect Proteins

Cricket flour is made by freezing, roasting, and grinding house crickets (Acheta domesticus) into a fine powder. It shows up in protein bars, chips, crackers, pasta, tortillas, granola, cookies, and meal-replacement shakes. Some brands advertise it. Others list only the Latin name. Mealworm powder (Tenebrio molitor larvae), lesser mealworm (Alphitobius diaperinus), banded cricket (Gryllodes sigillatus), and black soldier fly protein (Hermetia illucens) are following the same path into snacks and supplements.

Label names: cricket flour, cricket powder, Acheta powder, Acheta protein, Acheta flour, Acheta domesticus, partially defatted cricket powder, insect protein, insect flour, mealworm powder, mealworm protein, Tenebrio molitor, Alphitobius diaperinus, Gryllodes sigillatus, Gryllus, Hermetia illucens, black soldier fly protein.

New Insect Ingredients Since 2023

Evidence: regulatory filings and approvals; market penetration varies by country.

Silk Protein Coatings on Fresh Produce and Meat

A Massachusetts company, Cambridge Crops, doing business as Mori, extracts fibroin protein from silkworm cocoons and sprays it as an invisible, edible film on fruit, vegetables, and meat to extend shelf life. The company filed a GRAS notice with FDA for silk fibroin as a food coating, and FDA responded without objection.¹⁴ The cocoons are boiled in an alkaline solution after the silkworm pupae are removed, so the coating is a purified insect-secreted protein rather than insect tissue. Loose produce carries no ingredient list, which means a coated avocado or cut of meat may give you no way to know. Where it is declared, expect "silk fibroin" or "silk protein."

EU-Approved Insect Powders in Bread, Pasta, and Cheese

The European Commission has authorized seven insect novel foods since 2021: yellow mealworm in frozen, dried, and powder forms, migratory locust, house cricket, partially defatted house cricket powder, lesser mealworm larvae, and in January 2025, UV-treated whole mealworm powder.¹⁵ The UV treatment raises the powder's vitamin D3 content, and it is approved for bread, rolls, cakes, pasta, processed potato products, cheese, and fruit compotes. Labels must name the insect, but a "contains vitamin D produced by UV treatment" statement on a European bread or cheese is now a possible signal of mealworm in the recipe. Under EU review as of 2025: black soldier fly larvae and honeybee drone brood.

Silkworm Pupae, Bee Brood, and Insect Oil (Singapore, 2024)

In July 2024, the Singapore Food Agency approved 16 insect species for human food and animal feed, including house crickets, several grasshoppers and locusts, mealworms, superworms, beetle grubs, silkworm larvae and pupae, silkworm cocoons, and the European honeybee.¹⁶ Permitted product forms include insect oil, pasta with added insect, chocolate containing up to 20 percent insect, and salted or dried bee larvae. Singapore is a re-export hub, so these forms will spread through Asian import channels. Black soldier fly larvae were held back for separate review because of their use in food-waste processing.

Black Soldier Fly Larvae in Dog Food, Chicken Feed, and Farmed Fish

In 2021 the Association of American Feed Control Officials approved black soldier fly larvae for adult dog food and treats, adding to earlier approvals for poultry, swine, and salmon feed.¹⁷ Nestlé launched Purina Beyond Nature's Protein with fly larvae in Switzerland in 2020 and announced US plans, and Mars launched Lovebug, a larvae-based cat food, in the UK in 2021.¹⁸ Jiminy's sells cricket and grub dog food in the US. Insect meal is also entering conventional poultry and aquaculture feed, which means insect-fed chicken and farmed salmon are already in grocery stores with nothing on the package to say so. The cross-reactivity concern for allergic dogs and cats mirrors the human one and is worth raising with your veterinarian.

A Note on Bee Products

Honey, beeswax (E901, the usual alternative to shellac as a candy and fruit glaze), royal jelly, propolis, and bee pollen are all insect-derived. I list them for completeness, not as a warning. They are secretions and gathered products from a managed insect with thousands of years of dietary history, which puts them in a different category from ground larvae. Bee brood, the larvae and pupae themselves, is the exception and is now legal food in Singapore and under review in the EU.

"Natural Flavoring," "Natural Color," and Other Terms That Hide the Source

Evidence: US labeling regulations.

US regulations let "natural flavor" cover substances derived from plant or animal sources without naming the source. I have not found a documented case of an insect-derived natural flavoring in commercial use, and carmine can no longer hide under "natural color" on US food labels. The term still tells you nothing about origin. If the source matters to you, the only way to know is to ask the manufacturer, and a vague answer is its own information.

Insect Contamination the FDA Allows in Everyday Foods

Evidence: FDA Food Defect Levels Handbook, a primary regulatory document. The FDA states actual averages run well below these limits.

Beyond intentional ingredients, the FDA's Defect Levels Handbook sets "action levels" for insect fragments, whole insects, larvae, eggs, mites, and rodent filth across dozens of food categories. Food at or above these levels is legally adulterated. Below them, it is legal to sell. The FDA's stated reasoning is that it is "economically impractical to grow, harvest, or process raw products that are totally free of non-hazardous, naturally occurring, unavoidable defects."¹⁹ The limits below are quoted from the handbook.

Wheat flour

Average of 75 or more insect fragments per 50 grams.

Chocolate and chocolate liquor

Average of 60 or more insect fragments per 100 grams, or 1 or more rodent hairs per 100 grams.

Cocoa beans

More than 4 percent of beans insect-infested, and 10 milligrams or more of mammalian excreta per pound.

Green coffee beans

Average of 10 percent or more beans insect-infested or insect-damaged.

Peanut butter

Average of 30 or more insect fragments, or 1 or more rodent hairs, per 100 grams.

Macaroni and noodles

Average of 225 or more insect fragments per 225 grams.

Cornmeal

Average of 1 or more whole insects per 50 grams, 25 or more fragments per 25 grams, or 1 or more rodent hairs per 25 grams.

Ground black pepper

Average of 475 or more insect fragments per 50 grams.

Ground cinnamon

Average of 400 or more insect fragments, or 11 or more rodent hairs, per 50 grams.

Ground paprika

More than 75 insect fragments, or more than 11 rodent hairs, per 25 grams.

Ground oregano

Average of 1,250 or more insect fragments per 10 grams.

Ground marjoram

Average of 1,175 or more insect fragments per 10 grams.

Ground nutmeg

Average of 100 or more insect fragments per 10 grams.

Curry powder

Average of 100 or more insect fragments per 25 grams.

Frozen broccoli

Average of 60 or more aphids, thrips, or mites per 100 grams.

Canned or frozen spinach

Average of 50 or more aphids, thrips, or mites per 100 grams.

Canned or frozen asparagus

Average of 40 or more thrips per 100 grams.

Sauerkraut

Average of more than 50 thrips per 100 grams.

Tomato juice

10 or more fly eggs per 100 grams, or 5 fly eggs and 1 maggot, or 2 or more maggots.

Pizza sauce

30 or more fly eggs per 100 grams, or 15 fly eggs and 1 maggot, or 2 or more maggots.

Canned mushrooms

Average of 20 or more maggots of any size per 100 grams of drained mushrooms.

Golden raisins

10 or more whole insects and 35 fruit fly eggs per 8 ounces.

Fig paste

13 or more insect heads per 100 grams.

Hops

Average of more than 2,500 aphids per 10 grams.

Wheat

Average of 32 or more insect-damaged kernels per 100 grams, or 9 milligrams or more of rodent excreta per kilogram.

Grain storage insects, including rice weevils, granary weevils, and grain moths, lay eggs inside kernels. The larvae cannot be removed before milling and end up as fragments in flour, cornmeal, and pasta. That is why grain products have the highest allowances on the list. The FDA notes that these levels are ceilings and that typical products fall well below them, which is fair. It is also true that a limit exists because the contamination happens.

If you eat packaged food, you eat some insect parts. The way to reduce it is to buy whole ingredients, store grains and spices sealed and cool, and cook from scratch.

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Regenerative Livestock Is the Better Answer to the Sustainability Argument

Evidence: one peer-reviewed life cycle assessment and one peer-reviewed grazing trial; a commissioned industry LCA is noted separately.

The case for eating insects rests on land, water, feed, and greenhouse gas comparisons against livestock. Those comparisons use feedlot beef as the benchmark. Against well-managed grazing, the argument weakens.

Adaptive multi-paddock grazing moves cattle through pastures in a pattern that copies wild herd movement. Grasses recover between grazings, roots grow deeper, and soil biology builds. Photosynthesis and microbial activity move carbon from the air into the soil.

The strongest data comes from White Oak Pastures in Georgia. A peer-reviewed life cycle assessment published in 2020 found that the farm's multi-species pasture rotation stored 2.29 metric tons of carbon per hectare per year in soil, offsetting about 80 percent of the net greenhouse gas emissions from its livestock and producing a footprint 66 percent lower than conventional commodity beef.²⁰ An earlier 2019 assessment by the consultancy Quantis, commissioned by the farm and its beef buyer General Mills, made the stronger claim that the operation offset 100 percent of its cattle emissions; that report was not peer-reviewed and was paid for by parties with a commercial stake.²² A Michigan State University trial of adaptive grazing in the upper Midwest found that finishing cattle on pasture produced a net carbon sink during the study period once soil carbon gains were counted.²¹

The counterpoint is land. The White Oak Pastures system used about 2.5 times more land per pound of meat than conventional production, and soil carbon storage slows as soils approach saturation, so the early sequestration rates will not continue forever.²⁰ Whether that trade is worth making depends on what the land was doing before. In the Georgia case it was degraded row-crop ground.

Carbon is one benefit of many. Managed grazing rebuilds topsoil, holds more water, supports more wildlife, cuts synthetic fertilizer and pesticide use, and produces food on land too steep, dry, or rocky for crops. Cattle turn grasses humans cannot eat into complete protein, saturated and monounsaturated fat, heme iron, and fat-soluble vitamins. Grass-finished beef carries more omega-3 fatty acids, conjugated linoleic acid, vitamin E, and beta-carotene than grain-finished beef.²³ Insect powders supply none of that in comparable form.

The narrative that we must replace animal foods with bugs to protect the planet misreads the problem. Industrial feedlots and monoculture grain farming are the destructive systems. Regenerative grazing repairs the damage they cause. The path forward is scaling grazing that heals land and making pasture-raised animal foods affordable, not promoting a protein source with documented parasite, allergen, and heavy metal concerns and no long-term human safety record.

Quick Reference: Insect-Derived Ingredient Names to Watch for on Labels

Red dye from insects: carmine, cochineal extract, cochineal, E120, C.I. 75470, Natural Red 4, carminic acid, carmine lake, crimson lake.

Insect-secreted glaze: shellac, confectioner's glaze, confectioner's resin, resinous glaze, candy glaze, pure food glaze, natural glaze, pharmaceutical glaze, lac resin, gum lac, E904.

Cricket protein: cricket flour, cricket powder, Acheta powder, Acheta protein, Acheta flour, Acheta domesticus, partially defatted cricket powder, Gryllodes sigillatus, Gryllus, insect protein, insect flour.

Mealworm and fly protein: mealworm powder, mealworm protein, Tenebrio molitor, Alphitobius diaperinus, lesser mealworm, Hermetia illucens, black soldier fly larvae, BSFL.

Silk protein coatings: silk fibroin, silk protein, Bombyx mori fibroin (often undeclared on loose produce).

Silkworm and bee brood (imports): silkworm pupae, Bombyx mori, bee larvae, drone brood, insect oil.

Bee products: beeswax, E901, honey, royal jelly, propolis, bee pollen.

Terms that do not reveal source: natural flavor, natural flavoring, natural color, color added.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many bugs does the average American eat per year without knowing it?

A figure that circulates online claims about two pounds of insect parts per person per year. I could not trace it to any study. The FDA's handbook sets legal ceilings for fragments in flour, chocolate, spices, and canned goods, and the agency states that actual averages fall well below those ceilings. The true number depends on how much packaged grain, spice, and processed produce you eat, and nobody has measured it.

Is carmine (cochineal extract) dangerous?

For most people it is not. FDA has documented IgE-mediated allergic reactions to carmine, including anaphylaxis, in a small subset of people, and that record is the reason it must be named on US labels since 2011. If you have reacted to red or pink foods, cosmetics, or drinks without an obvious cause, carmine is worth testing for with an allergist.

Can I be allergic to cricket flour if I am allergic to shellfish?

Yes. Crickets and shrimp share the protein tropomyosin, and cross-reactivity has been confirmed in the lab and in at least one published clinical case. Dust mite allergy carries the same risk through the same protein. Treat cricket flour, Acheta powder, mealworm powder, and "insect protein" as potential allergens.

Is chitin the same as fiber?

Chitin is classified as an insoluble fiber, but it is structurally different from the cellulose in plants, and human ability to break it down is limited and varies from person to person. Some people tolerate it. Others get bloating, gas, and loose stools. Calling it "just fiber" oversimplifies.

Are insect-based foods regulated by the FDA?

There is no dedicated US regulatory framework for edible insects. Insects raised for human food must be raised for that purpose and listed as ingredients, but Latin names like Acheta domesticus are allowed, and no insect-specific allergen warning is required. The EU and Singapore have formal approval lists; the US does not.

Do bugs end up in my dog's or cat's food?

Increasingly, yes. Black soldier fly larvae have been an approved ingredient in US adult dog food since 2021, and Purina, Mars, and smaller brands sell insect-protein pet foods in North America and Europe. In the US, cat food use was still under review as of the last published update. Insect meal is also used in feed for chickens, pigs, and farmed fish, which does not appear on the meat label.

Is grass-fed beef better for the environment than eating bugs?

It depends on how the beef is raised. Feedlot beef has a large footprint. Adaptive multi-paddock grazing, in the one peer-reviewed farm-level study available, cut the greenhouse gas footprint by 66 percent compared with commodity beef by storing carbon in soil, while needing about 2.5 times more land. Grazing done well restores land that crops have depleted, which insect farming does not do.

What is the best way to avoid insect ingredients in food?

Read every ingredient list against the names in the quick reference above, especially carmine, cochineal extract, shellac, confectioner's glaze, Acheta domesticus, and any Latin insect name. Buy whole foods from sources you know. For loose produce, ask the store whether it uses coatings. When a label says only "natural flavor" or "natural color," contact the maker and treat a non-answer as a reason to choose something else.

Sources

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• Paoletti MG, et al. Human gastric juice contains chitinase that can degrade chitin. Ann Nutr Metab. 2007;51(3):244-251. doi:10.1159/000104144 ↩
• Lee CG, et al. Chitin regulation of immune responses: an old molecule with new roles. Curr Opin Immunol. 2008;20(6):684-689. doi:10.1016/j.coi.2008.10.002 ↩
• Gałęcki R, Sokół R. A parasitological evaluation of edible insects and their role in the transmission of parasitic diseases to humans and animals. PLoS One. 2019;14(7):e0219303. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0219303 ↩
• Percipalle M, et al. Edible insects and Toxoplasma gondii: is it something we need to be concerned about? J Food Prot. 2021;84(3):437-441. PubMed 33108441 ↩
• Garofalo C, et al. Current knowledge on the microbiota of edible insects intended for human consumption: a state-of-the-art review. Food Res Int. 2019;125:108527. doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2019.108527 ↩
• Flegr J. Influence of latent Toxoplasma infection on human personality, physiology and morphology. J Exp Biol. 2013;216(1):127-133. doi:10.1242/jeb.073635 ↩
• Hurd H, Fogo S. Changes induced by Hymenolepis diminuta (Cestoda) in the behaviour of the intermediate host Tenebrio molitor (Coleoptera). Can J Zool. 1991;69(9):2291-2294. doi:10.1139/z91-321 ↩
• De Marchi L, et al. Allergenicity assessment of the edible cricket Acheta domesticus in terms of thermal and gastrointestinal processing and IgE cross-reactivity with shrimp. Food Chem. 2021;359:129878. sciencedirect.com ↩
• Wangorsch A, et al. Allergic reaction to a commercially available insect snack caused by house cricket (Acheta domesticus) tropomyosin. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2024;68(5):e2300420. doi:10.1002/mnfr.202300420 ↩
• EFSA Panel on Nutrition, Novel Foods and Food Allergens. Safety of frozen and freeze-dried formulations of the lesser mealworm (Alphitobius diaperinus larva) as a novel food. EFSA J. 2022;20(7):e07325. doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2022.7325 ↩
• van der Fels-Klerx HJ, et al. Uptake of cadmium, lead and arsenic by Tenebrio molitor and Hermetia illucens from contaminated substrates. PLoS One. 2016;11(11):e0166186. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0166186 ↩
• US Food and Drug Administration. Listing of color additives exempt from certification; food, drug, and cosmetic labeling: cochineal extract and carmine declaration. Final rule. Federal Register. January 5, 2009;74(2):207. federalregister.gov ↩
• Cambridge Crops, Inc. (Mori). GRAS Notice No. 1026: silk fibroin derived from Bombyx mori cocoons for use as a food coating; and FDA agency response letter. GRN 1026; FDA response ↩
• European Commission. Approval of insects as novel food; Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/89 (UV-treated Tenebrio molitor larvae powder). food.ec.europa.eu ↩
• Singapore Food Agency circular of July 8, 2024, as reported by CNN. Singapore approves 16 species of insects for consumption. cnn.com (news report of a primary regulatory circular) ↩
• Pet Food Processing. Insect ingredients buzzing into the pet nutrition space. February 2024. Reports AAFCO's 2021 approval of black soldier fly larvae for adult dog food. petfoodprocessing.net (trade press) ↩
• NPR. Flies for dinner: Purina to offer bug-based dog, cat food. November 6, 2020. npr.org; CNBC. More pets are eating insect-based food. June 12, 2021. cnbc.com ↩
• US Food and Drug Administration. Food Defect Levels Handbook: levels of natural or unavoidable defects in foods that present no health hazards for humans. fda.gov ↩
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• Quantis. Carbon footprint evaluation of regenerative grazing at White Oak Pastures. 2019. Commissioned by White Oak Pastures and General Mills; not peer-reviewed. PDF ↩
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