For millennia, locusts have disrupted human food supplies by devouring crops. But the European Union may be turning the tables. Now it is the locusts being served up.

       On Friday, the European Commission added the locusta migratoria, the most widespread locust species, to its list of foods authorized for sale in the European Union. The insects will be considered a “novel food” when sold in frozen, dried and powdered forms, the E.U. executive branch announced.

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       “It is intended to be marketed as a snack or as a food ingredient, in a number of food products,” the European Commission said in a statement. “In the frozen and dried forms, legs and wings have to be removed by the food business operator to reduce the risk of intestinal constipation.”

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       The decision, which came after an application from a Dutch firm that breeds locusts and other insects, is part of a shifting approach by the European Union to insect-based foods.

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       In June, the European Commission added the dried yellow mealworm larvae of the beetle Tenebrio molitor to its approved food list. The larvae could be “used as whole, dried insect in the form of snacks, and as a food ingredient in a number of food products, the target population being the general population.”

       The two insects were added to the list after being backed by the European Food Safety Authority. The EFSA also recently gave its backing to whole house crickets, noting that the food was “not nutritionally disadvantageous,” though crickets have not yet been added to the novel food list.

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       The EU’s Novel Food Regulation has existed since 1997, with the supranational body defining the term as “newly developed, innovative food, food produced using new technologies and production processes, as well as food which is or has been traditionally eaten outside of the EU.”

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       Though the consumption of insects is not the norm in Europe, it is far from unusual in some parts of the world. In Mexico and some other parts of Central America, toasted grasshoppers are eaten, often as a snack or with alcohol. Seasoned with salt, chilies and lime juice, they are known as chapulines.

       Crickets are also eaten regularly in Thailand and some other parts of Asia. The European Commission admits that insects are already on the menu in some parts of Europe, as whole insects are not subject to the same approval restrictions. By one United Nations estimate, roughly 2 billion people already include insects in their diets.

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       In recent years, there has been a push to expand the consumption of insects, with advocates arguing that they can be just as nutritious as meat and better for the environment, as they do not require large amounts of land to farm or produce greenhouse gases like methane at a significant scale.

       Earlier this year, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization released a report that looked at insects from a food safety perspective, calling for more investigations into how mass farming of insects for consumption would affect food safety.

       In its statement, the European Commission said that it was “up to consumers to decide whether they want to eat insects or not.”