20 March 2018. This workshop focused on both the Belgian and the African context. Apart from staff from the Botanic Garden, the Africa Museum and also RBIN (Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences), this workshop involved people and organisations from the African Diaspora community. Meise Botanic Garden and the BigPicnic project: edible insects, consumers acceptance and food security. Jutta Kleber, Meise Botanic Garden

1. Edible insects
‘here’ and ‘there’

2. BigPicNic (2016 – 2019)
• European Horizon 2020 project
• 19 partners: 12 European countries + Uganda
(Botanic Gardens, Universities, Waag society)
• Scope:
– Building public understanding of food security issues
– Enabling adults and young people across Europe and in Africa
to debate and articulate their views on Responsible Research
and Innovation (RRI) in this field to their peers, scientists and
policy makers.
– Using co-creation approach and public debate

3. Focus: Africa
African Diaspora
plants and food
(co-creation)
Host plants for
edible insects
African Diaspora
entrepreneurship
Exchange MBG
research

4. African Diaspora entrepreneurship
and Meise Botanic Garden
research
Solidev
Growing oyster mushrooms
on coffee waste, bambu,
Pyrethrum …
MBG
wild gathered edible
mushrooms  cultivation

5. African Diaspora entrepreneurship
and Meise Botanic Garden
research
African diaspora
Agrofood Forum
25 April 2018
AD
entrepreneurs
Policymakers
Researchers
(MBG + other)
Funders

6. AD Co-creation & inspiration
2 exhibitions  12 000
visitors!
Eating insects ‘here’ and ‘there’
– Awareness: food security and sustainability in
African and European context.
– Tastings
– Eating insects: yes or no?

7. AD Co-creation & inspiration
2 exhibitions  12 000 visitors!
Afrikot (= Afrikaans frietkot)
– Awareness: importance of roots tubers and
plantains (Africa)
– Tastings

8. Eating insects YES/NO
– Opinion of MBG visitors on eating insects
– Filling in YES – NO papers: 378 responses collected:
• Spontaneous participation
• With/without tasting
• Analysis of motivation
– Interviews/observations
yes:188
no: 186
doubt: 4

9. Eating insects ‘here’
YES NO
Disgust Overcome it, try it: 19 Disgusting: 111
•dirty/gross: 65
•ugly/look: 15
•has legs,tickles, alive: 11
Taste Good taste: 97
• Crunchy: 17
Bad taste: 37
Health It’s healthy: 30
• Proteins: 15
Unhealthy, not hygienic: 6
Meat/
veggie
Good meat substitute: 17 Vegan/veggie is better: 12
Meat is better: 7
Animals suffering: 12
Environment,
sustainability
Better for environment: 26
Food security Food security solution: 13
Normal? New, a challenge: 17 Not ‘meant to’: 11
378 respondents, 415 arguments

10. Eating insects ‘here’
19 interviews and observations
- Female, 30+ wants to eat as less meat as possible thinking of future generations. Prefers
to eat vegetables, because she is vegetarian and encourages the rest of her family to be it
also. She is afraid that insects will cause on the longer run as much issues as meat
currently.
- Young man, so 20+ says that it is really not as bad as he thought and he actually liked it.
He is very interested on how to do a burger with insect meal.
- Female 30+ could not eat them and she thinks you have to be used to eat them from birth
on in different cultures and countries, else many like her cannot be convinced to
overcome their reluctance to eat them. At least not when you can still see what it is. If it is
meal in products probably ok
- Female 50-60, really emotional about it as daughter of farmers. She is shocked by the
price in the shops to buy those and said it is again a trend for rich people and “bobos”
who want sensations and they have jeopardized the idea that it can be an alternative to
meat or help fight hunger, at least in other countries. She regrets that some put it in
competition with local agriculture and meat that is produced by local farmers and do not
see it just as complementary. She said it is the EU and the big multinationals who forced
the farmers to work with “bad” products and made it all unhealthy and did not allow
traditional farming.

11. Eating insects ‘there’
Consumers perception/acceptation: little research done?
• Eat or not eat – an analysis of the status on enthomophagy in
Botswana (Obopile and Seleetso, 2013)
report a declining knowledge of edible insect species
• Commercialization Of Ruspolia nitidula (Nsenene Grasshoppers) In
Central Uganda (Jacob Godfrey Agea, Dickson Biryomumaisho,
Mukadasi Buyinza and Gorettie Nsubuga Nabanoga, 2008)

12. Eating insects ‘there’
• Some reflections from personal conversations (African + African
diaspora)
• Our tradition – delicacy – seasonal important addition to diet
• Possibilities for boosting African economies
• Learn from countries that developed techniques for rearing and
processing
• Wild gathering might motivate people to protect environment
Some examples of research, rearing, processing in Uganda
• Based on literature + some personal correspondence.
• Small sample!
1. Palm weevils, termites and grasshoppers
2. Flying food (rearing and processing)
3. School of Food Technology, Nutrition and Bio- engineering,
Makerere University Uganda (research)

13. Eating insects ‘Uganda’
Grasshoppers in Southern Uganda
• Nsenene = grasshopper Ruspolia differens or R. nitidula: a traditional delicacy
with cultural importance (dowry, dress) for Luganda people.
• Seasonal: 4 months/year. ‘In season’ meat prices drop.
• Price: 2,8 USD/kilo (beef: 2 USD/kilo)
• In Masaka Town (100 000 inhabitants), 750 people live from trapping and
selling.
• Eaten with legs and wings removed, legs and wings → chicken feed.
• Little knowledge about life cycle bij local farmers: ‘nsenene zagudde’
(they fall from the sky)
• Attempts are made to rear them (small scale) by a retired farmer in
collaboration with Makarere University.

14. Eating insects ‘Uganda’
Termites and palm weevils in Southern Uganda
(Masaka and Kalangala Islands)
Masiinya = larval stage of Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (palm weevil).
https://www.fondazioneslowfood.com/en/ark-of-taste-slow-food/masiinya-2/
Used to be harvested in the wild palm trees of Kalangala Islands (Victoria Lake). Wild
palms now mostly destroyed, replaced by oil palm plantations.
Weevils destroyed by plantation owners ← destruction of oil palms.
Termites: Macrotermes bellicosus
http://observer.ug/lifestyle/38751-why-white-ants-are-a-nutrition-goldmine
I stopped eating white ants when i grew older, because it is not considered cool; But
I didn’t stop eating nsenene.

15. Eating insects ‘Uganda’
Flying food
• Public private partnership, 12 partners from Netherlands, Kenya (1),
Uganda (3)
Coördinated by TNO, sponsored by Dutch Ministries facility for
Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Food Security (FDOV) and Achmea
foundation(Netherlands)
• Activities in Kenya (Nyanza) and Uganda (Masaka)
• What? Rearing criquets for food, processing to shelf stable food
Flying Food will make crickets available year-round. Crickets are relatively
easy to rear and are already consumed in large parts of Asia.
• Work together with 400 small-scale farmers + big factory (EntoAfrica) that
put BUUKA! (packed crickets with sesamy and chili) on the market.
• Marketing studies were needed to see if crickets will be accepted as food
in Uganda. It used to be a taboo, where as a certain species of
grasshopper has long been seen as a delicacy, specially in Masaka region
• ‘Ugandans eat grasshoppers, not crickets’ – export to the Netherlands?

16. Eating insects ‘Uganda’
School of Food Technology, Nutrition and Bio- engineering,
Makerere University Uganda (research)
Process development, sensory and nutritional evaluation of honey spread
enriched with edible insects flour (African Journal of Food Science, Vol. 11 nr. 2
February 2017) Special thanks to Dorothy Nakimbugwe
1. SURVEY on knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding edible insects in
Lango sub region (N. Uganda)
2. FINDING: Traditionally, dried termites are pounded into flour, eaten as such
or mixed with honey, peanuts, plant oils in discussed region.
3. STUDY to
 Evaluate suitable insects and processing methods,
 Study effect on sensory appreciation of different levels of flour
inclusion.
 Study effect on nutritious values of different levels of flour inclusion.
The significance of this research is related to the need to identify native foods which
may be valuable in providing third world countries with inexpensive and nutritionally
complete dietary constituents.

17. 1. Insects aren’t safe food, unless they are reared in highly controlled conditions.
2. Are insects cheap proteins for the poor?
3. African entrepreneurs should be encouraged to provide insect-based food for the
African and the European market.
4. Wild collection of insects encourages habitat protection and pesticide-free agriculture.
Therefore, it should be promoted, rather then industrial rearing.
5. Insects as food for humans don’t have a future. Future projects should focus on insects
for feed rather then for food.
6. It’s much better to focus on vegetables (seaweed/cultured meat …) as a source of
proteins, because they don’t cause animal suffering. Insects are animals too!
7. Africa’s Agrofood business should concentrate on large scale production methods. No
time should be wasted looking at traditional ways of collecting, processing, preparing.