Stricter regulations have entered into force, foods containing insect protein must be marked with the words “Caution! The food contains insect protein!” term, and they must be displayed separately from other products, announced Minister of Agriculture István Nagy on his social page according to the announcement of the AM. We reported on the regulation in detail earlier in this article.
Although it is still far from widespread on the shelves of domestic stores, you can easily find foods made from insects in domestic webshops with a simple search.
In terms of kilo prices, you can often find lots of hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of thousands Cayenne pepper cricket, cocoa locust, Carolina Reaper flavored whole roasted cricket, or just high-protein banana and dark chocolate-flavored protein bars from crickets.
In addition to foods intended for gourmets, for example, cricket flour and fried mealworms can be found in shops and webshops. These foods are not necessarily considered significant from a gastronomic point of view, but since their production typically requires less energy and water than, for example, meat or dairy products, they can be offered in stores in the name of sustainability.
It is important to remember that the insect protein regulation does not apply to a raw material that manufacturers still use in a relatively wide variety of products, carmine. Carmine is typically found in yogurts and meat products, it is made from mites, but it is not a protein, but a dye. This substance is listed as E120 among the ingredients.
