WATCH: Insect haggis served up for Burns Night

A charity co-founded by postgraduate student Rudi Verspoor has created a haggis made of edible insects for Burns Night to highlight worldwide issues of malnutrition.

The main ingredient of the haggis is mealworms – larva of the darkling beetle – and in order to make them fit for human consumption, they were fed on a special vegetarian diet first.

Bugs for Life promotes the use of edible insects to help fight food insecurity in the Atakora region of Benin in West Africa, where 50 per cent of the children are chronically malnourished.

Rudi, who is currently doing a PhD at the University’s Institute of Integrative Biology, set up the charitable organisation in 2013 alongside his friends Laura Riggi, Craig MacFarlane and Mariangela Veronesi.

The team partner with insect farmers to introduce sustainable farming methods to Benin and run classes on the body and nutrition in schools and health centres in the region.

Rudi said: “Craig loves getting science out there to the public, and experimenting with traditional cuisine using insects is one way we hope to raise awareness that they are excellent food.

“Insects are available worldwide and can be farmed very efficiently; they are a nutritious and sustainable way for communities around the world to help fend off starvation.”

Watch Craig from Bugs for Life serve up their novel haggis creation.