EU says it is safe to eat worms

Salted mealworms served on toast

(Image credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

published 14 January 2021

Have you ever wanted to eat worms? Well, the good news is that that the EU’s food safety agency says they are safe to eat. The panel published a scientific opinion stating that dried yellow mealworms, either eaten whole or in powdered form, are a protein-rich snack or ingredient to combine with other foods. The agency said “that the novel food is safe under the proposed uses and use levels”.

Monkey thieves know most valuable items

Bali’s thieving monkeys can spot the highest-value items to pinch from people, according to a new study. Long-tailed macaques who roam the Uluwatu temple prefer to target items that humans are likely to exchange for food, such as electronics, rather than less valuable items like empty camera bags, said Dr Jean-Baptiste Leca, associate professor in psychology at the University of Lethbridge, Canada.

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Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.

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