Insects are still unusual as an ingredient in food in Germany. Wrongly so: After all, the animals have long been popular as a source of energy in other parts of the world, they also have a low carbon footprint and are cheap to breed.
Master baker Ludovic Gerboin from the Postel bakery in Anzing, Bavaria, probably thought something similar. After receiving permission from the EU, he started experimenting with “protein donuts”. Their special ingredient: In addition to eggs, butter, flour and a cream of chocolate and caramel, the special donuts also contain finely ground grasshoppers.
You can hardly bite into one of the donuts by accident: Product signs in the bakery say “proteins in the form of insects” in large letters, as is also required in the EU. While the local customers are satisfied with the product and, according to their own statements, sometimes cannot taste the extra ingredient at all, the bakery is now feeling the unpleasant consequences of the willingness to experiment: As the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” reports, Gerboin and his team have to investigate first media reports with bad ratings on Google.
Among other things, they are accused of working in a way that is harmful to health, of having forfeited their status as a traditional bakery, or of secretly using insect meal in all the products on offer. Crude accusations also reach him on the phone: the bakery is “a puppet of the World Economic Forum” and the government is promoting the consumption of insects “so that they can continue to eat steaks and caviar”.
So the discussion about insects in food seems to remain heated. But that’s no reason for Gerboin to stop experimenting: he has the reviews on Google deleted and tells callers that he also respects other opinions. The reactions will not be entirely alien to him: he was already working with algae as an ingredient in his bakery a long time ago.
Sources:Bayerischer Rundfunk, “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (paid)
