Dinner with a crunch

It looks like a normal burger: a flattened meatball sandwiched between a sliced bun and some salad. 

“It tastes like falafel,” says |30-year-old entrepreneur Max Kraemer.

But this patty isn’t made from ground beef – it’s made from buffalo worms and vegetable produce.

Kraemer and his 28-year-old partner Baris Ozel, founders of the German company Bugfoundation, want to launch their insect-based “Bux Burger” in a continent – Europe – that is famously pernickety about sources of protein.

Kraemer first tried eating insects on a trip to Thailand several years ago as a student.

“I wrote about it in my thesis and came across a lot of prejudices against insects as a source of food,” he says

On the continents of Africa, Asia and Australia, insects already belong to the everyday diets of 2 billion people, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

But in the West, grilled, deep-fried or stewed maggots, worms and ants are more of a novelty item on menus.

But why shouldn’t insects play a greater role in feeding Europeans?

“The most important advantage is that insects taste good,” says Kraemer.

There are around 2,000 edible and tasty varieties, he says. “That’s already one basic requirement needed to make a business out of them.” Putting patties between two buns is one of the most popular ways in Europe of serving food quickly and conveniently.

Experts say there are many advantages to eating insects. 

“Insects are very sustainable,” says Sergiy Smetana, who is studying for a doctorate at the German Institute of Food Technologies (DIL).

According to the FAO, insects are healthy and nutritious, and rich in protein and healthy fats, as well as calcium, iron and zinc.

Farming them is significantly less damaging to the environment than raising most other kinds of animals. That’s partly because they require less water and also because they need less food; to produce the same amount of protein, grasshoppers require a twelfth of the amount of food needed by cattle and half as much as pigs or chickens.

They also need less land.

“Farming insects is therefore particularly suitable for urban areas,” says Smetana. That’s an important argument in an increasingly urbanized world.

Apart from being more environmentally friendly, insects are healthier than other types of meat, according to Kraemer.

“The proteins are digested very easily by the body,” he says.

Unlike beef and pork, they hardly contain any saturated fats, responsible for many first-world illnesses, and are rich in vitamin B12, he adds.

Nevertheless, Kraemer’s business idea has one key obstacle to overcome, in Europe at least.

It’s not forbidden to eat whole insects in the European Union, but processed insect products, including ground insects and insect burgers, are banned.

“It’s a new food, and that first needs to be tested for its compatibility [with EU food regulations],” says Smetana.

Lots more research is needed, he adds, because not all insects are suited for human consumption.

As a consequence, the Bux Burgers are still illegal in Europe. However the EU legislation regulating “novel foods”, which include insects, was recently updated, though it doesn’t |come into effect until January 2018.

“We now have to put in some intensive research and prove that our burgers aren’t dangerous,” says Ozel.

They’re collaborating with research partners in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany over the next two years.

There are in fact two restaurants in Belgium which already offer the burger –apparently the food authorities there are not as strict as elsewhere in Europe.

Demand isn’t great, but those who have tried the burgers gave good feedback, says Ozel.

“The burger is sold at least twice a day and it gets eaten,” he says.

The next goal for the company, based in Osnabrueck, northwest Germany, is to supply between 30 and 40 restaurants in Belgium.

They’re also keen to emphasise one thing: they’re not out to replace meat.

“Our goal is to create a new category alongside meat, fish and vegetarian foods,” says Kraemer.

Smetana agrees. Projects like this aren’t about forcing people to start eating only insects and plants, he says. “We have to diversify our food.”