Eating insects could end up bugging people allergic to shellfish

Andreas Lopata from James Cook University was one of the lead researchers on a project to examine whether shellfish allergies translated to consumption of insects, specifically crickets.

Professor Lopata said analysis found 20 proteins in cricket products that were already linked to shellfish allergies.

“We took these proteins and analysed them against our database of 100 patients with shellfish allergies, some adults, some kids,” he said.

“What these results show is that if a shellfish-allergic patient has a reaction to a particular protein, these people are also at high risk of reacting to the same protein in crickets.”

Professor Lopata said the finding had implications for the insect protein industry, especially around food…