Thai entrepreneur pushing insects as the snack of the future

BANGKOK (AP) — A Thai entrepreneur is pushing bugs as the next big thing in tasty treats.

Thatnat Chanthatham is running a $100,000-a-month business that packages all sorts of baked insects like potato chips. His HiSo brand is selling the snack in Thailand’s ubiquitous 7-Eleven shops and in a major supermarket chain.

Until recently, demand for edible bugs was mainly in parts of Asia, Africa and South America. HiSo’s emergence comes amid growing global interest in insects as a food source.

Rural Thais have long eaten bugs as part of their diet. In big cities, street vendors catering to migrant workers sell cooked insects that under most circumstances would cause foreign tourists to whip out a can of bug spray.