Insects in Food – The Hidden Global Agenda Impacting Your Plate – Grassmonster’s Den

GRASSMONSTER SAYS:
The Great Crunch
Welcome to the Era of Edible Insects Without Consent

There are many ways to sneak a grasshopper past the gates of a democracy, but food regulation dressed in euphemism is arguably the most effective. Somewhere between climate salvation and corporate profit lies a curious sleight of hand: you are likely already consuming insects – not in the medieval “boiled beetle” manner of fear-fuelled campfire tales, but through powdered, renamed, repurposed biological agents tucked neatly into your pre-packed meals.

The movement to integrate insects into the Western diet is no longer hypothetical. It is an operational reality. Yet unlike other shifts in public consumption – sugar taxes, salt warnings, GM foods – this one has been wrapped in ambiguity and served cold. The messaging? That it’s good for the planet, good for the poor, and quietly being approved without democratic disclosure. A buffet of Orwellian cheer.

Let us not tiptoe through the millipedes here. The European Union, United Nations, major multinationals, and a ragtag army of greenwashed startups have already begun weaving ground crickets, mealworms, and black soldier fly larvae into the fabric of everyday foods. You’ll find them in cereal bars, burger patties, biscuits, pizza crusts, and even protein powders – with ingredient labels deliberately obfuscating their presence under codes like “Acheta domesticus powder” or “Tenebrio molitor flour.”

This article is your fly-swatter against the haze. We are going to chew through nine parts of this unfolding food protocol, guided by law, not conspiracy. Names will be named. Facts will be sourced. And dinner may never look quite the same again.

The Regulatory Shell Game – How Insects Got In Without Telling You

Let’s call it what it is: a bureaucratic hall pass for unlabelled entomophagy. The infiltration of insects into foodstuffs across Europe and other Western markets has not been a grassroots culinary renaissance – it is a regulatory manoeuvre clothed in jargon and justified by crises, real or manufactured. And at the centre of this silent transformation is the quietly weaponised phrase: “Novel Foods.”

In the European Union, the Novel Foods Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 is the golden ticket through which insects have entered the legal food supply chain. Companies submit dossiers to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), who then assess whether the insect powder or paste is fit for mass ingestion. Sounds democratic? It isn’t. Only a handful of companies have the resources and political windfall to push these applications through – the rest? Bystanders at the buffet.

Since 2021, EFSA has approved mealworms, house crickets (Acheta domesticus), migratory locusts, and the larvae of the lesser-known black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) for consumption. These are now legally permitted to be used in flour, biscuits, pasta, snacks, and meat substitutes. But here’s the rub – current EU regulation permits **insect inclusion without front-label disclosure**, provided the insect is ground and listed by its Latin name in the ingredients.

So, if you’ve recently munched a high-protein cereal bar and noticed “Tenebrio molitor” in the fine print, you’re already on the cricket train. And if you missed it altogether, that’s precisely the point. There has been no mass media campaign to inform the public of this seismic shift in dietary policy. No supermarket signs. No national debates. Only quiet adjustments and smiling CEOs from food conglomerates who’ve lobbied for this since 2018.

Meanwhile, in the UK, post-Brexit independence was meant to offer food sovereignty. What it offered instead was regulatory mimicry. The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) is currently ‘fast-tracking’ edible insect applications, using pre-2021 EU dossiers as the backbone of its decisions. Translation: what Brussels approves, Britain soon follows.

Who’s Eating What? Current Foods Already Contaminated by Insects

Let’s dispense with euphemism. This isn’t about sustainable gastronomy or cute tribal customs. This is about insect derivatives being inserted into food products that were never designed for them, without meaningful public awareness. The invasion has already occurred – and here’s the shopping list.

Currently Insect-Impacted Foods:

Snack Bars & Protein Powders: Companies like Bug Foundation (Germany) and Cricket One (Vietnam) now sell insect protein to major nutrition brands in Europe. These powders are mixed into “plant-based” protein blends, often listed only in fine print as “Acheta domesticus powder.”
Meat Alternatives: Several meat substitute brands are quietly trialling insect paste as a binder and texture enhancer. This includes trial partnerships with Ynsect (France) and Protix (Netherlands) supplying burger formulations in Germany, Denmark, and the UK.
Biscuits & Pasta: In Italy and Belgium, brands such as Fucibo and Micronutris are already producing cricket-infused biscuits and high-protein pasta blends, legally sold through both health food chains and supermarkets under novel foods licences.
Breakfast Cereals & Bread: Insect flour is already being used as a supplementary protein in certain cereals in Spain and Austria. Select artisanal bakeries in Germany and the Netherlands have begun offering “eco-protein” loaves made with Tenebrio molitor.
Pizza Bases: Italian startup Small Giants (backed by EU food innovation grants) has released a cricket powder pizza base under the guise of carbon-footprint reduction.

Many of these items are *not clearly labelled* on front packaging. Instead, ingredient terms like “insect protein,” “mealworm flour,” or Latin scientific names are used. A casual consumer, especially one shopping online, has little to no chance of knowing what they’re ingesting. That’s the scheme. The trick is not denial – it’s dilution of visibility.

The most galling twist? The industry prides itself on public hesitancy. By slipping insects into mainstream foods slowly and without media fuss, they believe public resistance will simply fade. It is the culinary equivalent of gaslighting – one crouton at a time.

Who’s Behind the Crunch? Companies, Conglomerates, and Countries

If the public has been treated as unwitting participants in an entomological experiment, then let’s be clear about the laboratory staff. The global push to “insectify” the food supply is neither organic nor spontaneous. It is coordinated, funded, and already industrialised – with a paper trail pointing directly to international bodies, state-backed corporations, and multinational conglomerates.

1. Ynsect (France): The self-proclaimed global leader in mealworm protein. Backed by French government grants and private investment from Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Ynsect supplies powdered insect derivatives to animal feed manufacturers, fertiliser firms – and increasingly – to the human food sector.

2. Protix (Netherlands): Producer of black soldier fly larvae-based ingredients, funded by Rabobank and the European Investment Bank. While public-facing as a pet food and aquaculture provider, Protix has recently expanded its insect-derived oils and powders to human food partners across the EU.

3. Cricket One (Vietnam): Export giant for ground cricket flour, with certified partnerships in Europe. Working with startups in Denmark, Switzerland, and Germany to supply “sustainable protein.” Low wage labour and high output make Cricket One a critical link in the insect economy.

4. Aspire Food Group (Canada): Operating what it calls “the world’s largest cricket farm for human consumption” in Ontario. Major contracts with US health bar brands and military rations. It also has DARPA-friendly leanings, exploring insects as rations in conflict zones.

5. Small Giants (Italy): EU-funded “food innovation” company making insect-infused snack foods. Their PR machine focuses on climate and carbon, but their products are headed for school vending machines and chain retailers with minimal consumer debate.

6. UN & FAO (Global): Since 2008, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has promoted entomophagy as a key solution to food scarcity and climate change. The narrative? Insects are “efficient protein” and essential for the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). That line is now echoed by government health agencies from Canada to Kenya.

7. European Union (Brussels): Through its Novel Food Regulation and associated subsidies, the EU has essentially greenlit and financed insect adoption. The European Commission even co-funded insect cookbooks to nudge schoolchildren toward bug burgers by 2035.

And behind the veil of startups lie familiar giants: Nestlé, PepsiCo, and Unilever have each dabbled in insect R&D. Nestlé’s R&D Centre in Switzerland has tested cricket flour in chocolate. PepsiCo has conducted stealth trials on insect-enhanced protein chips. The food industrial complex does not gamble – it prototypes in silence.

What They Plan Next – The Earmarked Future of Insect-Based Foods

The current wave of insect inclusion is merely the appetiser. What comes next is not just an expansion – it’s a planned migration away from traditional protein altogether, framed under climate guilt and technocratic efficiency. And while headlines bleat about “future food,” internal documents, grant proposals, and policy briefs make it clear: the insect revolution is now a roadmap, with specific targets.

1. Mass Inclusion in School Meals: The EU’s “Farm to Fork” initiative, aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), includes provisions for normalising insect protein in institutional meals. Belgium and Denmark have run insect-based school lunch trials. In Italy, government-funded education campaigns promote cricket snacks as part of “future food education.”

2. Military and Emergency Rations: NATO food contractors and US defence suppliers have been trialling black soldier fly and cricket protein in ration kits. The rationale: long shelf life, low logistics, and environmental optics. Aspire Food Group (Canada) is a key supplier under study by military nutrition labs.

3. State Benefits & Subsidy Boxes: The Netherlands and Germany are preparing pilot schemes in which welfare food packages may include insect-enriched items by default. These trials are justified under sustainability and “future-proofing food assistance.”

4. Insect Dairy Substitutes: EU-funded biotech firms are exploring insect oils as butter alternatives and even experimenting with “insect milk” derivatives. An Israeli startup has already created cricket-fat butter marketed for vegan pastry chefs. Coming soon to a gastro-trough near you.

5. Insect Protein in Pet and Baby Food: While pet food has already seen insect expansion, proposals are now targeting infant nutrition sectors. EU-backed research in France and Germany is testing mealworm powder for formula substitutes under “extreme climate readiness scenarios.”

6. Integration into ESG Supply Chains: Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) scores are now being tied to sustainable protein adoption. Corporations that incorporate insect proteins receive better ESG ratings, access to green bonds, and carbon credit schemes. Translation: your bank and pension fund are financially incentivised to back cricket flour.

The goal is a two-tier food structure: traditional meat for the elite and niche; insect and synthetic paste for the masses. All justified under the banner of climate, sustainability, and dietary equity. Orwell once predicted a boot stamping on a human face – perhaps he underestimated the subtlety of a cricket bar with no label.

Is It Safe? Known and Ignored Dangers of Eating Insects

Those pushing the bug buffet like to chirp about sustainability, but go awfully quiet when asked about human health impacts. And that’s not because the data doesn’t exist – it’s because it does, and it’s troubling. The science, far from universally celebratory, contains red flags big enough to swarm a picnic.

1. Allergen Risk: Insects share protein structures with crustaceans – meaning people with shellfish allergies could experience anaphylaxis after consuming cricket or mealworm powder. Several studies from the University of Milan and the European Food Safety Authority have confirmed cross-reactivity. Yet most insect products do not require front-of-pack allergen warnings.

2. Chitin Accumulation: Insect exoskeletons are made of chitin – an indigestible fibre linked in high doses to gut inflammation and reduced nutrient absorption. The long-term effect of chitin-rich diets in humans has not been studied at scale, yet companies like Protix and Cricket One include whole insect powders in their recipes.

3. Bacterial Load and Parasites: Insects bred at scale can carry a variety of pathogens – including Salmonella, Listeria, and E. coli. Though industrial producers claim they sterilise batches, FAO documents admit “low-cost” production in developing countries often skips critical hygiene protocols. Risk assessments remain incomplete and rarely peer-reviewed.

4. Heavy Metals and Bioaccumulation: Insects grown on waste substrates or low-grade organic matter can absorb cadmium, arsenic, and lead. Studies from Belgian and Thai research labs show mealworms often exceed safe thresholds for heavy metal content, especially when used in feed recycling systems.

5. Unknown Long-Term Effects: In short: we don’t know what a 10-year diet of cricket powder does to the body. There are no longitudinal human studies. No trials on pregnant women. No labelling laws requiring any warning of long-term consumption. It is a gamble being played in the kitchens of unsuspecting citizens.

In any other context, such uncertainty would warrant caution. Yet here, it’s painted as progress. As if food experimentation is now a moral imperative rather than a medical consideration.

The Silence of the Labels – How Consumer Consent Was Skipped

Would you eat a cockroach burger if the label said “Cockroach Burger”? No? That’s precisely why they don’t call it that. The industry tactic isn’t education – it’s camouflage. Latin names, euphemistic branding, and ingredient placement that would make a lawyer blush. It is deliberate, and it is strategic.

In the EU, food containing approved insect species does not require front-of-pack disclosure. The law allows their inclusion so long as they are listed in ingredients – usually under Latin species names, hidden among emulsifiers and flavourings. Thus, “Acheta domesticus flour” is cricket powder. “Tenebrio molitor larvae” is mealworm dust. And the consumer is legally considered to have been “informed.”

In the UK, post-Brexit food laws are trailing behind. Although the Food Standards Agency acknowledges edible insect applications are “under consideration,” retailers like Holland & Barrett, Planet Organic, and even Amazon UK already sell cricket-laced snacks without warning labels. There is no legal obligation to state clearly: this food contains insects.

Meanwhile, consumer watchdog groups have been asleep at the wheel. When challenged, supermarket chains point to “compliance with EU guidance” or wave vague sustainability credentials. And so, the experiment proceeds – without full disclosure, without televised debate, and with no opt-out.

The ethical question isn’t “should people eat insects?” but “should they do so unknowingly?”

The Bigger Picture – Insects, Global Control, and the Agenda Framing

It all leads here: the real purpose of this edible insect tsunami is not culinary curiosity – it is control masquerading as compassion. By deciding what protein populations are permitted to access – and by pricing real meat out of existence – international bodies and private cartels are positioning themselves as the custodians of human nutrition.

This is not conjecture. Documents from the UN, FAO, and WEF openly describe insect adoption as part of a “global food systems transformation”. Food sovereignty – the right to choose your diet based on culture, belief, or biology – is being eroded in favour of a model where you eat what you’re given, for the good of the carbon ledger.

The corporations profiting from this agenda are the same ones pushing climate panic and ESG compliance: Nestlé, PepsiCo, Unilever, Bayer. Their ties to think tanks and policy levers mean insect integration becomes less about ecology and more about hegemony.

There’s a reason insects are being pushed on schoolchildren and low-income populations first. It’s not to help them – it’s to normalise scarcity disguised as virtue. And the final insult? The insect protein industry will be largely owned by private equity and tech investors – the very people least likely to eat it themselves.

Author – @grassmonster

#GlobalFoodAgenda #InsectControl #WEFInsectPolicy #FoodSovereignty #UNSDG #CarbonFoodEconomy #PrivateEquityProtein

Keywords: global insect food agenda, UN food control, WEF insect policies, ESG food scores, insect protein and control

Legal Disclaimer: This article is an editorial commentary based entirely on publicly accessible sources and current data. While every effort has been made to ensure factual accuracy and legal compliance, the author disclaims liability for any misinterpretation, omission, or unintended inaccuracy. No part of this publication constitutes legal, medical, or dietary advice. The views expressed are those of the author in a satirical and investigative style. Readers should conduct their own research before acting on any content presented. The author explicitly waives responsibility for any interpretation or republication of this content by third parties. – @grassmonster