Ban on insect-flavoured ice-cream in US

An American retailer has been banned from selling insect-flavoured ice cream.

Sparky's Homemade Ice Cream shop in Columbia, Missouri has been told by health officials to stop making the cicada-flavoured foodstuff, despite it all being snapped up within hours of going on sale.

Bruce Barrett, a professor of entomology at the University of Missouri, pointed out consuming the insects is not as unusual as some people think because a cicada – which has large eyes apart from its head – and similar bugs are a "delicacy" in certain cultures.

He told the Columbia Daily Tribune: "Insects kinda have a bad rap, but in actuality, if you look at their cousins shrimp and crabs they’re considered a delicacy."