Dutch student Walinka van Tol inspects the worm protruding from a half-eaten chocolate praline she’s holding, steels herself with a shrug, then pops it into her mouth.

Miss Van Tol and about 200 other tasters were guinea pigs for a group of Dutch scientists doing groundbreaking research into insects replacing animal meat as a healthier, more environmentally friendly source of protein.

“Tasty ... kind of nutty!” the 20-year-old assures her companions clutching an array of creepy crawly pastries at a seminar, which forecast that larvae and locusts will invade Western menus as the price of steak and chops skyrocket.

“There will come a day when a Big Mac costs €120 euros and a Bug Mac €12, when more people will eat insects than other meat,” head researcher Arnold van Huis told a disbelieving audience at Wageningen University in the central Netherlands.