‘A wing in the throat’: Negotiating edibility in everyday insect consumption

Abstract

This paper contributes to the ‘geographies of edibility’ by investigating everyday edibility negotiations around edible insect foods in Norway. Edible insects are positioned as an ‘alternative protein’ for the future with the potential to substitute conventional meat. Though already consumed in many parts of the world, insects are considered a novel food in the Global North, and their edibility remains a point of contention among consumers. Extensive research documents consumers’ attitudes towards, and reported willingness to eat, insects. However, less attention has been paid to how consumers engage with insect foods outside of artificial settings. Addressing this gap, the present paper explores how the edibility of edible insects is negotiated by consumers in everyday life. The paper reports on an exploratory food intervention in which ten households were recruited to experiment with commercially available insect foods for two weeks and record their experience through logging, photography, and reflection. The results demonstrate the crucial role of embodied everyday practices in mediating participants’ experience of dealing with insects, supporting a relational view of edibility. Not only the material properties of foods but also embodied experiences and socialised norms around eating contribute towards constructing insects as (in)appropriate and legitimate food. The paper’s findings have implications for the theorisation of edibility formation, and for our understanding of edible insects’ possible role as a meat replacer in the protein transition.