Professor Cooks Up Bug Buffet

Ohio State University entomology professor Susan Fisher brings a picnic to her class each spring.

Fisher spreads the contents of her picnic basket across a small table for the students of her class, titled Pets, Plagues, Politics and Poisons.

Each dish was made with insects, 10TV’s Andrea Cambern reported.

"It gets them to come to class, is the first reason," Fisher said. "Insects are excellent nutrition. They're high in protein. They're low in fat. And they have many essential vitamins and minerals," Fisher said.

Fisher said that people in many countries eat insects, and our the U.S. Food and Drug Administration sets rules for the number of bugs that Americans can consume. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich cannot have more than 56 insect parts, Cambern reported.

Fisher said that Americans eat other arthropods, such as shrimp and lobster. 

For the third year in a row, Fisher showed off her culinary skills to remove the fear factor.

"Most Americans find this to be a loathsome idea. And yet people all around the world eat insects, so why shouldn't we?" Fisher said.

She sliced into quiche with larvae.

"The cooking process tends to bring the larvae to the top for reasons that are not obvious to me," she said.

There were delicacies for those with a sweet tooth -- chocolate dipped mealworms and oatmeal-raisin cookies made with bee larvae.

There was also an item with crunch -- wontons made from green onions, water chestnuts and mealworm.

Some students were adventurous, Cambern reported.

"It was really tasty. I noticed like when I ate the meal worms, they popped in my mouth," student Clayton Ford said.

Student Chris Lovekin said that the food tasted better than he expected.

"It's right after Mother's Day and I'm having all these memories of Mom going 'Don't eat that. Don't eat that,’” Lovekin said.

The students sampled the goodies.

"I taste the nuts.  I taste the chocolate.  I don't taste the bees," said student Barb Bloetscher.

But given a choice of food spiced with insects or free of them, Bloetscher said, "I'll stick with hamburgers."

Fisher said she also brings her buggy food to the staff Christmas parties, Cambern reported.

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