[00:00.00]Singapore's House of Seafood restaurant is the country's first eatery to offer insects to customers.
[00:10.15]The change comes after the city state's food authority recently approved 16 kinds of insects for humans to eat, including grasshoppers, grubs and mealworms.
[00:23.11]Crickets and other insects have long been eaten as street food in Southeast Asia.
[00:33.58]But the wealthy financial center places heavy safety and cleanliness restrictions on food imports.
[00:42.95]Francis Ng is the chief of House of Seafood.
[00:47.20]He said customers love it when the dishes bring attention to the insects.
[00:54.04]For example, the restaurant offers a tofu dish made to look like bugs are crawling out of it and a dish of rice balls decorated with silkworms.
[01:07.62]"It looks scarier so customers can film (it) for their Tiktok," said Ng.
[01:14.44]He added that customers had been calling him regularly to plan a tasting of the dishes.
[01:22.14]The restaurant has created a menu with 30 dishes that feature insects, which they can sell to the public once their importers are approved by the food authority.
[01:36.43]For now, Ng is offering free samples.
[01:40.63]In 2019, Singapore declared it was aiming to produce 30 percent of its nutritional needs by 2030.
[01:51.93]Currently, around 90 percent of food is imported.
[01:57.10]Food security expert Paul Teng said insects could certainly help move towards this goal - if people got over "the yuck factor."
[02:09.34]"Most insects are almost all protein," said Teng.
[02:13.86]Teng added that there needs to be local production to make this new way to get protein less costly.
[02:23.20]"Getting people to accept insects in their diet is a challenge.
[02:27.92]But really, it's a normal food item.
[02:31.80]Let's do something about it to prepare the consumer for it," he said.
[02:37.99]"Me personally, I have no problem eating insects."
[02:42.51]The United Nations has said bugs can be a sustainable way to get protein to feed the world.
[02:51.33]The U.N. estimates the global population will reach 9.7 billion by 2050.
[02:59.55]Extreme weather and conflicts have also increased the interest in insects as high-quality, low-cost nutrition.
[03:10.97]In Singapore, all insects approved for human food must be farmed in a controlled environment.
[03:20.02]The insects cannot be taken from the wild. And they cannot be fed materials like human or animal waste or rotten food, the food agency says.
[03:33.51]There has been local interest in importing insects, but cost remains an issue for now: Ng said insects make up 10 percent of his costs at the House of Seafood, and they are all imported.
[03:51.91]"The price is definitely higher than eggs," he said.
[03:56.53]It is too early to tell if insects will become an important part of the Singapore diet or whether demand will decrease as it has for fake meat products.
[04:10.81]But for now, some diners say they are happy to develop a taste for bugs.
[04:17.63]"If they have a higher source of protein, why not? I'll add it to my daily meal and daily food intake," said Bregria Sim, a 23-year-old logistics executive.
[04:32.38]She added that she would be willing to pay about $30 for the unusual dishes.
[04:39.71]I'm John Russell.
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Words in This Story
customer -n. a person or group who buys goods or services
authority -n. an agency or office that oversees a public service or activity and has the power to make and enforce rules governing it
dish -n. a particular kind of food
decorated -adj. made to look in a pleasing way
feature - v. to bring attention to some element of a product or object
sample - n. a small amount of something that is tested, or tasted, to see if it is good
yuck - interjection used to express strong dislike or displeasure
challenge - n. a task or problem
item -n. one of a group of similar things
sustainable - adj. relating to a method of using a resource so that it is not permanently damaged or used up
rotten -adj. breaking down, decaying or impossible to eat
fake -adj. having the appearance of the real thing, but not real
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