Dried crickets used as mooncake filling spark concerns in China about potential roach option
Creepy-crawly take on Mid-Autumn Festival delicacy sees internet users mock ‘insane’ use of ingredients in traditional fare
As this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, a type of novel mooncake has been launched that has attracted public attention in China because its filling is made from crickets.
After such cricket mooncakes went viral on social media, internet users in southern China’s Guangdong province, where cockroaches are rampant due to the warm climate, made playful comments that cockroach mooncakes might not be far away.
The cricket mooncake is produced by a farming centre in Linyi, Shandong province, in the eastern part of China.
It dries crickets and grinds them into powder before mixing it with traditional mooncake stuffing, such as sesame and walnut kernels.
“You cannot find any traces of insect traces, from a vision or taste sense, in our mooncake products,” Gao Yonghong, a manager from the cricket farming centre, told Linyi Daily.
“Instead, it is chewier and more nutritious,” she added.
One online observer who has tasted this type of mooncake said: “It is just a bit salty. It is fine if you do not think about the fact that there are crickets in it.”
