This is a guest post by Marcus Griswold:
As an entomologist (a scientist who studies bugs), it’s a rite of passage to eat a few insects. But the first time I got others to do so was at my toddler’s birthday party, where I substituted cricket flour for wheat flour in muffins. I also had a few fried bugs scattered around the table for people to try. It went surprisingly well, and people had fun with eating insects.
Fast forward a number of years, and I led an event for Cub Scouts. I started by showing the kids a variety of edible insects and asking who would be willing to try them. Surprisingly, nearly all of them raised their hands, racing to see who could crunch the beetle, cricket, or scorpion first. Even more were willing to do a taste test to tell me which chocolate chip cookie had crickets and which one didn’t. For those not interested in eating a real insect, everyone got to make their own insect out of fruits and toothpicks. What made all of this work was that we focused on play and competition, limiting the pressure to eat a bug.
More and more, we will be seeing insects in our foods. The global demand for protein is rising rapidly, driven by population growth, urbanization, and economic development, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
With over 2,200 insect species identified globally as suitable for consumption, insects demonstrate significant advantages, including high feed conversion efficiency, short developmental lifecycle, and greater edible yields compared to conventional plant- and livestock-based food sources. Market forecasts project the value of edible insects to reach $17.9 billion and 4.7 million tons by 2033, with a compound annual growth rate of 28.6% in value and 36.3% in volume from 2024 to 2033.
A recent survey, encompassing more than 18,000 people across 17 countries, revealed that, on average, more than 20% of individuals express a readiness to consume insect-based food not just once, but as part of their regular diet. The preference of respondents to try edible insects was also recently analyzed across 71 studies. Over half of people were willing to eat crickets and mealworms, likely because these are the most common insects available for Westerners to buy in stores. Consumers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America generally show greater openness to consuming insects compared to their Western counterparts, where reluctance (often associated with neophobia) remains prevalent.
Communicating the Benefits of Eating Insects
We often think communicating the benefits of food will make it sell better. Edible insects offer numerous ecological and nutritional benefits, ranging from a lower carbon footprint to a higher nutritional value, making them an ideal solution for pressing global issues such as food security and environmental degradation. Insects are also nutritionally rich, providing protein, energy, healthy fats, fibers, and essential micronutrients.
Compared to traditional livestock, insects stack up favorably when it comes to nutrition and sustainability. People are between 10 to 30 percent more likely to pay for insect-based foods when manufacturers share the benefits of an insect-based diet. In reality, however, this rational approach often provides limited benefits. Sadly, facts and scientific literacy alone do not always change minds.
It’s a different story when we consider who is promoting the benefits. Numerous celebrities have promoted insects as food, including Drew Barrymore, Robert Downey Jr., Nicole Kidman, Gordon Ramsay, Salma Hayek, Angelina Jolie, and others. But often, if not sustained, this just creates temporary excitement.
Ignorance is Bliss
Some manufacturers take a stealth approach by not telling consumers there are insects in their food. Food manufacturers have taken this approach for decades by removing pictures of insects from packaging, processing insects into forms that do not suggest their presence, limiting the amount of visible insect material, or changing how insects are depicted on the product.
Your red M&Ms likely come from insects. Cochineal is a natural red dye taken from the female cochineal scale insect (Dactylopius coccus). It’s used to color candies, yogurt, ice cream, canned fruit, desserts, cheese, and even meats, often appearing as carmine, carminic acid, or Natural Red No. 4.
If you like jelly beans, you probably ate some bugs. Shellac, a natural glaze made from the Lac bug, is used in many sweet foods and is even used to coat pills to make them easier to swallow. Look for ingredients like candy glaze, resin glaze, natural food glaze, confectioner’s glaze, confectioner’s resin, Lac resin, Lacca, or gum lac.
Even if you avoid these candies, you’re not entirely safe. The Food and Drug Administration tracks the amount of bugs allowed in foods, known as the Food Defect Action Levels. Examples include: berries can have an average of 10 or more whole insects per 500 grams, ground cinnamon can have 400 or more insect fragments per 50 grams, and chocolate can have 60 or more insect fragments per 100 grams.
Just Don’t Make Me Eat It
Most humans today lack a direct connection to their food source. Instead of hunting, fishing, or farming for food, the majority of consumers get it from a grocery store.
While many consumers hesitate to eat insects themselves, they’re more receptive to the idea of insects being used as animal feed. In a 2025 study, between 30 and 50% of people in the U.S. and Europe were willing to eat food that was fed insects, increasing to 60% in Latin America and an astonishing 95% among European farmers.
Getting Over the Yuck of Eating Insects
One reason why people have difficulty consuming insects is that they find the thought gross. Deep-rooted fears conditioned by associations with dirt, contamination, and pain make insects particularly unappealing.
Options to get over this disgust involve tricking our minds. Anthropomorphic packaging incorporates human-like traits into insect characters. Familiar insects or familiar foods containing insects are less likely to generate disgust. In the U.S., desserts like cookies may serve as the gateway.
Just a Little Please
Direct exposure to insect-based foods through taste tests can motivate consumers to buy these foods. However, moderation matters. In a study in Africa, buns made with 5% cricket flour were preferred by 80% of taste testers, but preference declined to 67% when the cricket content increased to 10%.
You can use the idea of an “adventure bite” to get someone to try just one bite of an insect-based food—and maybe they’ll want more.
Using Humor and Distractions
Q: What do you call a rabbit with fleas?
A: Bugs Bunny
Comedy pulls people in and creates a positive emotional connection, which can inspire engagement and action. Humor can help contribute to social change by drawing attention, lowering resistance to persuasion, breaking down social barriers, and stimulating sharing and discussion.
Distraction—like offering music or recalling a comforting memory—interferes with disgust before it fully forms.
Humor is also an effective tool for overcoming barriers to insect consumption. One study used hilarious packaging language (“Eat them before they eat you”) and found that 25% more people were willing to try the insects. The edible insect brand Sens uses humor by labeling their insect-laden chocolate bars with “Do you dare?”
Humor makes the unbearable bearable. Play triggers the release of neurotransmitters, such as dopamine and endorphins, which are associated with pleasure, reward, and stress reduction.
Bio: Marcus Griswold is an entomologist who has always tried to convince people to not smash bugs, but isn’t opposed to eating them. He has curated insects at the Smithsonian, taught about bugs to youth, and explored the subtropics and tropics where bugs grow larger than your hand. He started Your Bug Club to spotlight the benefits of bugs in all parts of our lives.