• @Corvidae
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    91 month ago

    Allergenicity? Are any humans allergic to insects as food?

    • @[email protected]
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      141 month ago

      A friend of mine is epi-pen levels of allergic to shellfish and they wouldn’t let him try crickets in culinary school because there’s often an overlap.

      • @evasive_chimpanzee
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        71 month ago

        With 17 year cicadas popping up, people were eating them like shrimp. There were actually warnings put out by health agencies not to try it if you had a shellfish allergy.

      • @[email protected]
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        41 month ago

        Huh, TIL. I tried crickets once as a kid and don’t remember having any issues with it, but I can’t order cream cheese wontons from the Chinese place near my house because it’s the same fryer they use for squid. I found that out after I ordered them once and had a reaction. :/ Weirdly, I used to love crab rangoon before I went vegetarian and I never had a problem with it, and I don’t remember having problems the few times I’ve tried shrimp either. Squid has always been a problem for me though, the few times I’ve tried it or been exposed.

        • @[email protected]
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          41 month ago

          If it helps, that might be irrelevant for you! My friend mentioned that chitin was the issue (no idea if he’s right, please don’t take medical advice from me), so things like shrimp and crab are huge problems for him, but I think cephalopods less so

          • @[email protected]
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            31 month ago

            Yeah, in my case it might just be molluscs (or possibly just squid, but I’m probably going to avoid escargot and mussels), which is less common but possible - crustaceans only is apparently much more common, but they apparently generally associate the two because it’s not unusual for both to cause problems and with serious allergies it’s better to not fuck around and find out.

        • @samus12345
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          21 month ago

          Must have an allergy to mollusks, but not crustaceans.