The Disgusting Food Museum in Malmo, Sweden plans on showcasing 80 of the world’s most disgusting foods. This museum may seem like a project that has no purpose except to gross people out, but museum curator Samuel West says the project could help spark an interest in people regarding more sustainable sources of proteins.
Via The Disgusting Food Museum:
The evolutionary function of disgust is to help us avoid disease and unsafe food. Disgust is one of the six fundamental human emotions. While the emotion is universal, the foods that we find disgusting are not. What is delicious to one person can be revolting to another. Disgusting Food Museum invites visitors to explore the world of food and challenge their notions of what is and what isn’t edible. Could changing our ideas of disgust help us embrace the environmentally sustainable foods of the future?
An unlikable museum is a concept that West has explored before. His previous project called the Museum of Failure, also located in Sweden, highlights how important failure is to the progress of life.
West explained to Vox that the Museum of Disgusting Food could make people eat less meat and contribute positively to the environment, saying, “New, environmentally friendly foods like insects and, further down the road, lab-grown meat, could be an option.”
West believes that you could turn people on to eating insects if you introduced them to the idea in an elite setting, even if they’re not environmentalists. “More and more top chefs or restaurants are including insects on their menu, and I think that’s a great way to start introducing them, within the context of fine dining.”
Visitors of the museum will get to smell and taste some of the world’s most infamous foods through an experience that’s meant to be challenging and educational. The museum opens October 29.
