Chocolate mealworm cake and cricket salad, anyone?

They say it tastes like chicken, but then, what doesn't? This cricket salad could be key to solving a looming crisis in world food shortages that may hit within a generation. The dish and other insect treats, like a chocolate cake made out of mealworms, was created by scientists at Poland's Wroclaw University. They say the bugs are generally high in protein, low in fat, take up far less space than cattle farming, and have less of an environmental impact. The university is far from the first institution to experiment with the other white meat. And in some parts of the world, such as regions of China, eating insects is commonplace. Yet urgency is starting to take hold elsewhere. The United Nations estimates that by 2050 the world's population will have grown by over a third, totaling 9 billion people, and demanding a 70 percent increase in food production to meet it. But if chicken-flavored cricket doesn't sound appetizing to you, you may be in luck. The scientists say feeding insects different things can change their flavour.