Urging Romanians not to eat flour from crickets, but sardines, sausages, “eggs”, the Minister of Agriculture Petre Daea gives new arguments: crickets should be “let them sing”.

Peter DaeaPhoto: Government, Facebook

While in Arad on Friday, the minister was asked about how he had urged Romanians not to eat cricket flour in August, and now he replied that he was urging Romanians to “eat Romanian”.

  • “I said one thing very clearly: let the cricket sing. (…)
  • We must consume what our land produces, what these people do, eating the food we know, and we have an extremely important gastronomic heritage that we must not neglect.
  • I encourage you to do as I do: eat Romanian!” Petre Daea was quoted as saying by Agerpres.

“Now don’t replace chicken eggs with any worms”

In February, the European Commission allowed the promotion of the house cricket (Acheta domesticus) as a new food product in the European Union, becoming the third insect to be successfully tested for consumption, following approval last July for the dry insect. yellow worm and in November for a grasshopper.

In the case of the domestic cricket, the consumption permit is valid in frozen, dry or powdered form.

In August, Daea first commented on this decision and called on the Romanians:

  • “Hey don’t eat cricket flour, what are you doing with crickets? Let them sing where they are. We eat what we have to eat.
  • We eat sausages, we eat sausages, we eat chicken eggs. Do not replace chicken eggs with any worms now. There is no point in making such an effort.”

In March 2022, Daea tasted domestic crickets, sharing with the producer of the TV show Etno a portion of a new version of the food, recommended as the food of the future by the European Food Safety Agency. At first, the suspicious former Minister of Agriculture did not cause a shocking reaction when he learned that he tried, house crickets were the third insect declared edible at the European level after the yellow worm and the grasshopper, writes Money.ro.

Daea over time stood out with numerous “colorful” statements and “opinions” that caused laughter.