Entomologist gets grant to develop food based on insects

Published: Wednesday, May 9, 2012 at 4:48 p.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, May 9, 2012 at 4:48 p.m.

Gainesville entomologist Aaron Dossey wants to feed starving children with bugs to prevent malnutrition, and now he has a $100,000 grant to give it a shot.


Aaron T. Dossey (Courtesy photo)

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded Dossey the grant Wednesday to develop an insect-based food for children in famine-stricken areas of the world. Dossey plans to create a paste or other food product using insects such as crickets, which he said are more accessible than other ingredients in places lacking resources.

"Insects are a lot more sustainable and at least theoretically can be farmed in places that don't have a lot of access to water or resources required to raise cattle," he said.

The Gates Foundation awarded more than 100 grants Wednesday as part of a $100 million initiative funding projects that address global health problems in novel ways. Successful projects have the chance to receive a follow-up grant worth up to $1 million.

Dossey is a research entomologist with the U.S Department of Agriculture in Gainesville. He formed his own company, All Things Bugs, to apply for the grant. He noted that members of some African cultures already eat insects and that bugs have amino acids, fats and nutrients not found in plant-based foods.

He's planning to try crickets, fly larvae and mealworms as ingredients in the paste. He'll use insects mass raised for pets and laboratories, not insects caught in the wild.

Most insects have a neutral taste, he said, but spices or sugar can improve their flavor. A sausage that he made from fruit flies had a bland taste before spices were added, he said.

"At least in my experience, it's not that bad," he said.

Dossey earned a doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology from UF and worked as a postdoctoral research associate before his current job with the USDA. He works there on projects involving an insect that spreads a citrus disease.

A friend introduced him to people interested in entomophagy, the term for the consumption of insects as food. He believes the practice can become mainstream, if the insects are farm-raised and processed for products such as sushi or a bug burger.

"Having a cricket stare at you on a cracker or a sandwich is probably not going to go over well with a lot of people," he said.



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