Hives or an itchy mouth after a cricket protein bar or mealworm burger? Edible insects are new on European shelves, but the proteins in them are not new to your immune system if you already react to shrimp or dust mite. Our test checks your blood for IgE to mealworm, house cricket and migratory locust, as part of 300 allergens and allergen components, on the same report as shrimp and dust mite.
Since 2021 the EU has approved several insects as novel foods, including the yellow mealworm, the migratory locust and the house cricket. You find them whole and roasted, or ground into flour that disappears into bars, pasta and baked goods. In the Netherlands and Germany they show up in supermarkets as well as speciality shops.
EU approvals come with a labelling rule: products must say that insects may cause reactions in people allergic to crustaceans, molluscs or dust mites. That warning exists for a reason, and it is the key to understanding insect results.
Insects, shrimp and dust mites are all arthropods. They share muscle proteins that look very alike, above all tropomyosin and arginine kinase. Antibodies made against shrimp or mite tropomyosin can recognise insect tropomyosin too.
This is not just a lab curiosity. In a Dutch study, most people with a shrimp allergy also reacted to mealworm in a supervised food challenge. So if you are sensitised to shrimp or dust mite, an insect result is worth looking at before you try insect foods. Some people also become sensitised to insects directly, for example through work in insect farming.
Reports after eating insects look like other food reactions: itching or tingling in the mouth, hives, swollen lips, stomach cramps, vomiting, wheezing and, rarely, severe reactions. They usually start within minutes to two hours.
Swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, trouble breathing or feeling faint after eating is an emergency. Call 112 (EU) or your local emergency number. Do not wait for a test.
From your finger-prick sample, the lab measures IgE to three whole insect extracts as part of 300 allergens and allergen components. Shrimp and prawn tropomyosin, dust mite tropomyosin (Der p 10) and cockroach are on the same panel, so a doctor can see whether an insect result sits alone or alongside shellfish and mite.
A positive result shows sensitisation, not a confirmed allergy. Your lab report gives each value a class from Negative to Very high. Talk it through with a doctor before you add insect foods or avoid them.
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One finger-prick sample checks IgE to 300 allergens and allergen components, from birch and peanut to cat and house dust mite. Post it to the lab, and about 5 days after it arrives you get a value for every one. Our plain-English guide shows you how to read them. €399 in total, €1.33 per allergen.
Be careful. Insects and shrimp share proteins such as tropomyosin, and in studies most shrimp-allergic people also reacted to mealworm. EU insect foods carry a warning for exactly this reason. Talk to a doctor before trying them; an insect IgE result can help that conversation.
Dust mite and insects share tropomyosin, so dust mite sensitisation can come with insect IgE. Many people with mite allergy have never eaten insects, so nobody knows how they would react. A test shows whether your blood recognises cricket, and a doctor can advise on what that means.
Yellow mealworm, house cricket and migratory locust, each as a whole extract. These are among the insects approved as food in the EU. Shrimp, crab, lobster, dust mite and cockroach are on the same panel.
