The European Commission last month approved the use of mealworm larvae and a cricket product to make food.

The picture shows the "Cricket Burger" launched by a restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand last year.

(AFP file photo)

(Central News Agency) The Middle Eastern country of Qatar reiterated the Islamic ban on eating insects after the European Union (EU) added new insect ingredients to permitted foods.

Qatar's Ministry of Health issued a statement last night saying that insect products did not comply with "shariah regulations for the technical preparation of halal food," Agence France-Presse reported.

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The statement added that Gulf Cooperation Council regulations "as well as the religious opinion of the competent authorities" prohibit "the consumption of insects or insect-derived proteins and supplements".

Qatari authorities said the announcement followed "a decision by some countries to authorize the use of insect ingredients in food".

Qatar did not specify the countries, but the European Commission last month approved the use of lesser mealworm larvae and a cricket product in food.

Mealworms are beetles.

Insects were already used by groups around the world as a source of protein until the pressure to find alternatives to foods that increase greenhouse gases, such as meat, increased in popularity.

The European Union has approved 4 kinds of insects to be used as "novel foods", but all foods containing insect ingredients must be clearly labeled.

Some scholars pointed out that there is no clear regulation on whether insects can be eaten in Islamic law.

Many believe that locusts are legal halal food because the Koran mentions the insects.

But many shariah scholars object to eating other insects on the grounds that they are unclean.