Would you spice up your food with mealworms?
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Salt, pepper and, er, mealworms?
Scientists say adding sugar to mealworms gives a meaty flavouring which could be used for seasoning.
Mealworms are the larval form of the yellow mealworm beetle.
In the UK they are used as bait for fishing but people have increasingly been looking at ways for people to eat them.
In 2021 the EU food safety agency said mealworms were safe to eat along with crickets and grasshoppers.
Why eat meal worms?
Eating insects is considered nutritional and good for the environment.
Now new research presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society says cooking up mealworms with sugar can create a "meat-like" flavour which could be used in seasoning.
"Recently, eating insects has become of interest because of the increasing cost of animal protein, as well as the associated environmental issues," says In Hee Cho, the project's main researcher.
Most experiments with mealworms have involved cooking them whole like this fried rice from a food festival in the US
Although insects are regularly eaten in some countries, Hee Cho says that there is an image problem in the US and Europe.
Many companies have turned mealworms into snacks where you eat them whole.
Cho says a more successful approach would be to hide insects in the form of seasonings inside easy-to-cook and other convenience products.
Experimenting with flavours
Hojun Seo, a graduate student on Cho's team, compared the flavours that developed as larvae were cooked with different methods.
According to the research steamed mealworms developed even stronger sweet corn-like aromas.
Roasted and deep-fried versions had a shrimp-like taste. According to Seo, the flavour generated from roasting and frying was similar to that of meat and seafood when cooked.
WATCH: Should we be eating more insects? (from June 2022)
Based on these results, the team expected that additional reaction flavours could be produced from the protein-rich mealworms if they were heated with sugar.
When protein and sugar is teamed together it usually produces a meat-like and savoury taste.
Seo then experimented with different amounts of sugar and powdered mealworms, producing 29 different compounds.
These were then tested on volunteers who gave feedback on which had the best meat-like flavour.
The researchers say they hope the results of the study will encourage the food industry to include more edible insects in their products.
Would you eat mealworms? Let us know in the comments below.