Supermarket shoppers in the western German city of Aachen have stepped out of their comfort zone to sample insect burgers made from mealworms.

The mealworms, highly nutritious thanks to their high protein content, are the larvae of buffalo or mealworm beetles and are bred in the Netherlands.

Served in rolls with lettuce, onions and tomatoes, they are being offered to customers of the Rewe supermarket chain after proving successful in the Netherlands and Belgium.

One passerby who tried the burger, Manfred Roedder, said it was a good alternative to meat, adding: “I had reservations at first, but I got a second serving because it tasted so good.”

Baris Özel, the co-founder of the Bugfoundation start-up that makes the burgers, said he spent four years working on the concept along with fellow co-founder Max Krämer. The pair got the idea after travelling together to south-east Asia, where it is not uncommon to eat insects.



The Bugfoundation’s Insekten Burger is being sold at an Aachen supermarket. Photograph: Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters

“It’s quite simple. You have to create an aesthetic product that looks good and doesn’t show any insects,” Özel said, adding that people were attracted by the smell of the burgers. But not everyone is sure about them.

“We have people who are totally thrilled to find out about the whole thing and have been looking forward to it for days,” said supermarket manager Michael Reinartz. “And we have people who say, ‘you’re not seriously doing that?’”

• This article was amended on 23 April 2018 to make clear the burgers are made from insects called mealworms, not from earthworms.

