Reikop rejects insect sweets as artists sample future foods

Musician Eik and DJ Critical tasted insect lollipops, chocolate-coated crickets and mycoprotein on ERR’s programme Ringvaade, while host Marko Reikop said he disliked the taste of insects and found the chocolate-covered cricket sweets unpleasant.

Sandra Lääne, curator of a new permanent exhibition at the Rural Life Curiosity Centre, brought the products to the studio. They included lollipops containing worms and insect larvae, mycoprotein and chocolate-coated crickets.

Lääne described mycoprotein as fungal protein grown through fermentation and a healthy alternative to various plant proteins. She said chocolate-coated crickets look like chocolate-covered raisins but are slightly crunchier.

“One goal of future food is to normalise people seeing insects as food,” Lääne said. She added that sweet products were one way of bringing that idea to ordinary consumers.

Reikop said he had eaten insects before but had not found any of them good. “Things made from cricket flour are disgusting,” he said.

Lääne said the taste also depended on how much of a product had been replaced. She cited the Netherlands, where hybrid meats containing equal parts mycoprotein and animal mince are already sold. According to Lääne, such products are healthier, cheaper and better for the environment without requiring people to change their favourite recipes.

DJ Critical said he had eaten insects several times in Asia, but not with a sweet coating. Musician Eik said the sweet addition seemed the most frightening part, adding that he did not particularly like the taste.

DJ Critical tried an insect lollipop and said it reminded him of eating flies as a child. He found it pleasant, describing it as nicely sour and sweet.

Mycoprotein is used to make flour or chicken fillet substitutes. Lääne said the raw material could also be shaped by soaking it. After tasting it, Reikop compared the texture to eating plywood or a raw lasagne sheet.

While eating a chocolate-coated cricket sweet, Reikop said the insects’ oil or fat had a different taste from animal and plant fats, but that the dark chocolate largely masked the unpleasant cricket flavour. DJ Critical said he would not have been able to distinguish it from an ordinary sweet.