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Abstract:
Background: Insects are touted as a “food of the future” due to their lower environmental footprint
relative to traditional livestock, raising interest in entomophagy as a sustainable diet. As such, they
appeared at future-food themed Universal Exposition 2015 in Milan, Italy, in which 145 countries presented
their nations’ food culture and contributions to innovative food science and technology.
Scope and approach: The presence and absence of entomophagy in all the national and themed pavilions
of Expo 2015 and the way developing and developed nations differed in their presentation of insects
were analyzed as a microcosm of global attitudes to insects as food and the barriers towards its wider
adoption.
Key findings and conclusions: Only Belgium and the Netherlands presented insects in their vision for the
future, and only Angola as traditional cuisine. Nations noted for active entomophagy today such as
Mexico and Thailand did not mention insects at all. Efforts to serve insects faced obstacles in Italian
import restrictions, which changed by the event's end. Expo 2015 illustrates challenges in promoting
global entomophagy, including the need for improved rearing methods, the risks of associating insects
with starvation scenarios, and the preference of Westerners for processed insects over whole.
