FDA: Don’t eat cicadas if you are allergic to seafood

NBC News – If you have a seafood allergy, the FDA said you may want to pass on the cicada recipes popping up across the internet.

“Yep! We have to say it! Don’t eat #cicadas if you’re allergic to seafood as these insects share a family relation to shrimp and lobsters,” the agency tweeted Wednesday.

The warning coincides with the emergence of billions of cicadas in Eastern U.S. With a bug surplus, more adventurous culinary connoisseurs have tasked themselves with finding a way to make them appetizing, though some describe them as a rare gourmet treat.

Fish and shellfish are two of the eight major food allergens that must be labeled on food packaging, according to the FDA, along with milk, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat and soybean. Together, these allergens account for 90 percent of food allergies in the U.S., NBC News reported.

However, the Food Agricultural Organization of the United Nations released a report saying allergies related to eating insects need more study. The report, which focused on the safety of eating insects, noted that “individuals already allergic to crustaceans are particularly vulnerable to developing allergic reactions to edible insects, due to allergen cross-reactivity.”

That means the immune systems of certain people are sensitive to certain proteins found in shellfish and that similar proteins found in insects could also trigger allergic reactions, NBC News reported.

The Brood X cicadas emerge from the ground every 17 years. Billions will take to the trees to mate and lay eggs before they die.

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