VOA文化艺术2024--Singapore Approves Insects as Food

Singapore's House of Seafood¹ restaurant is the country's first eatery to offer insects to customers.

The change comes after the city state's food authority recently approved 16 kinds of insects for humans to eat, including grasshoppers², grubs and mealworms.

Crickets and other insects have long been eaten as street food in Southeast Asia. But the wealthy financial center places heavy safety and cleanliness restrictions³ on food imports.

Francis Ng is the chief of House of Seafood. He said customers love it when the dishes bring attention to the insects. For example, the restaurant offers a tofu dish made to look like bugs⁴ are crawling out of it and a dish of rice balls decorated with silkworms.

"It looks scarier so customers can film (it) for their Tiktok," said Ng. He added that customers had been calling him regularly to plan a tasting of the dishes.

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. For now, Ng is offering free samples.

In 2019, Singapore declared it was aiming to produce 30 percent of its nutritional⁵ needs by 2030. Currently, around 90 percent of food is imported.

Food security expert Paul Teng said insects could certainly help move towards this goal - if people got over "the yuck factor."

"Most insects are almost all protein," said Teng. Teng added that there needs to be local production to make this new way to get protein less costly⁶.

"Getting people to accept insects in their diet is a challenge. But really, it's a normal food item. Let's do something about it to prepare the consumer for it," he said. "Me personally, I have no problem eating insects."

The United Nations has said bugs can be a sustainable way to get protein to feed the world. The U.N. estimates the global population will reach 9.7 billion by 2050. Extreme weather and conflicts have also increased the interest in insects as high-quality, low-cost nutrition.

In Singapore, all insects approved for human food must be farmed in a controlled environment. 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.

There has been local interest in importing insects, but cost remains⁷ an issue for now: Ng said insects make up 10 percent of his costs at the House of Seafood, and they are all imported.

"The price is definitely higher than eggs," he said.

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.

But for now, some diners say they are happy to develop a taste for bugs.

"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. She added that she would be willing to pay about $30 for the unusual dishes.

Words in This Story

customer -n. a person or group who buys goods or services

authority -n. an agency or office that oversees⁸ 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 permanently⁹ 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

1 seafood   

n.海产食品，海味，海鲜

参考例句：

• There's an excellent seafood restaurant near here.离这儿不远有家非常不错的海鲜馆。
• Shrimps are a popular type of seafood.小虾是比较普遍的一种海味。

2 grasshoppers   

n.蚱蜢( grasshopper的名词复数 )；蝗虫；蚂蚱；（孩子）矮小的

参考例句：

• Grasshoppers die in fall. 蚱蜢在秋天死去。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There are usually a lot of grasshoppers in the rice fields. 稻田里通常有许多蚱蜢。 来自辞典例句

3 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

4 bugs   

adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误

参考例句：

• All programs have bugs and need endless refinement. 所有的程序都有漏洞，都需要不断改进。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 nutritional   

adj.营养的，滋养的

参考例句：

• A diet lacking in nutritional value will not keep a person healthy.缺乏营养价值的饮食不能维持人的健康。
• The labels on food products give a lot of information about their nutritional content.食品上的标签提供很多关于营养成分的信息。

6 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

7 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

8 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

9 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。