We are Italian.
Why remarking this fact?
In Italy the concept of entomophagy is light years away from our cultures and culinary traditions. The huge variety of dishes, spices and recipes known all over the world has never left space (apart from sporadic exceptions that we will analyze later) for insects designed as food.
Quite the opposite despite what we are trying to build!!
The idea that something that has always been thrown out of homes can turn into nourishment repels most Italians and at best is not considered at all.
The question therefore arises spontaneously, what prompted us to sell, but above all to try firsthand and insert in our diets something so different from our habits?
We will explain but a concept must be highlighted, the awareness.
Giving food for granted without questioning its provenance and sustainability is naive and dangerous especially for our health.
Various surveys confirm that in 2050 we will be 9.8 billion against the current 7 billion..
Current food sources will not be sufficient
Solution? Review food production schemes with a focus in reducing waste and pollution.
Awareness is crucial to drive the change in people behave.
Insects embody all these aspects:
· reducing the space necessary for their growth,
· reducing waste
· reducing pollution and the represent perfect substitutes for "classic" foods in terms of nutrients.
Later on we will cover the relative statistics and we will deepen the various aspects, now we continue with our journey ...
Matteo and I were looking for something to start, an alternative to our office jobs, something of our own.
We jumped in something else in terms of motivations… A change, starting from our behaviors.
The goal was to open an online business and convert into digital entrepreneurs. Every week we have the habit of hearing each other, both for friendship and for speaking and defining our projects.
I still remember the call on Skype that Matteo gave me one evening in February. He had moved to Italy from Italy for a few months for work reasons and had stayed at home that evening and his roommates had decided to amicably challenge his Italian origins by preparing a special dinner ... A meal completely based on insects.
I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel disgusted with what I saw through Matteo's camera phone. There were several glasses with inside, monsters of various kinds: crickets, whitish and fat larvae, biscuits with flour worms on top, a pizza (?!) Insects as each kind of condiment. And finally, the dessert. A scorpion completely covered in chocolate.
I could tell from the tone of my neo-entomophagus friend that he too was not exactly at ease but, to avoid being rude, he tasted almost everything without blaming.
Everything but the scorpion, he told me the following day.
That was too much.
He just couldn't eat it, not seeing what was under the chocolate cover worried him more than the other visible insects.
Out of curiosity , in the following days I began to learn about entomophagy and entomology. I discovered with great surprise that edible insects are daily food for millions and millions of people and I learned about the existence of different associations whose members share this passion. I came across many articles, many designated insects able to be a probable food of the future, informing them how nutritional values were exceptionally suited to supplying our daily needs for proteins, vitamins, amino acids.
If you want to learn more, here you can find the article we wrote about it!
Then a revelation.
I met Marcel Dicke, a Dutch entomologist and university professor, who launched the nice provocation from the TEDx stage: "Each of you is eating insects, up to 500 grams a year!" I learned that the foods we consume must meet certain standards and not only in terms of freshness and quality, but also in the presence of insects. Chocolate, fruit juices, peanut butter are just some of the foods for which limits have been set on the amount of insects allowed within them:
For the complete list and if you want to deepen the topic, click here..
As you imagine, quite fast curiosity had officially turned into interest and this interest in a concrete idea, EntoEat.com. I proposed to Matteo the project of opening an e-commerce and making reviews of the products for sale, honestly telling our opinion after having tested them personally. He immediately saw the potential and was enthusiastic about it.
In a short time we already had contacts to sell in dropshipping and then we turned to Amazon, waiting to have our breeding and warehouse , a project in progress that we will drive you through it later.
Only a small detail remained. Never ate insects before … How could we be able to make reviews on insects?