French frog legs: delicacy or disaster?

Frog-eater may not be the politest way to address a French person, but it's true: many French people love frogs' legs - they eat around 4,000 tons of them every year. Where do these frogs come from? In France and the EU, unlike in Asia, native frogs are protected from exploitation. This is why most frogs' legs come from there. As delicious as frogs' legs may be, the unregulated trade in them is problematic in several respects. In this video, we explain why this is the case and what a possible solution could be.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
00:54 How to prepare frog legs
01:53 Frog farms
02:09 The problem with frog legs
03:21 Breeding frogs
04:13 Quantity vs quality

CREDITS
Report, camera, edit: Sylvain Thizy
Supervising editor: Ruben Kalus

#froglegs #france #frogs
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[Supriyadi-Cartographer]

Most of the frogs imported from Indonesia are bullfrogs, intentionally bred and fed with fish pellets. Frogs from the wild tend to vary in size and quality, making it difficult to meet export standards.

[bryedtan]

I live in Southeast Asia in the Phillippines. I have eaten frog legs as well not in a French Restaurant but a Chinese one. So eating it is pretty universal. To those who feel it is gross trust me it tastes like Chicken it tastes great.

[anameglass]

Remember in the medieval era frog is not considered as meat but fish so it was acceptable to be eaten during Lent, plus frogs taste yummy and nutritious.

[Aurica]

Frog Legs are delicious here in Singapore and Malaysia as well.

[time]

Here in the USA we eat American Bullfrog legs, delicious and juicy. They’re a terrible invasive in some parts of Europe, so my friends across the Atlantic should dig in! Best recipe is to marinate them in a Japanese soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, MSG, and pepper; then grill over charcoal or cook in cast iron.

Try some alligator if you ever get a chance, the tail meat is 💯.

[chowfun]

You’d think by now they’d have dozens upon dozens of frog producing farms in France. Just three?

[theotheleo]

The frogs are farmed in Indonesia and Vietnam as well. There are videos of this on YouTube. The woman who is against the importation of frogs sounds like a protectionist.

[wss]

Some of the best frog legs I’ve ever eaten were in Taipei. Made in a clay pot with garlic, ginger, basil and dark soy.

[myretronation]

Frog legs are commonly used with congee here in Malaysia... absolutely delicious stuff!

[freconsbo]

It's already a well-known food item in Asia... 🤷🏻‍♂️

Not unlike how Escargot sounded foreign at first, but it's an everyday snail in the country. 😅

Frog legs taste like Chicken, by the way. Just be sure to get them from sterile breeding sources. Wild frogs can have worms.

in hk, it's also a traditional dish (frog leg rice), it's quite common in wet market and basically alive, but only the specific type of frog (2:59).

[dbg]

Ate them for the first time last week in Mostar, Bosnia. Not really found them in France restaurants, weirdly. As people say, they taste like chicken, not a huge amount of meat on them and lots of small bones. Not unpleasant, but not sure I would rush to order them again. Good to try once.

[mikeh]

I remember a restaurant in Franklin Tennessee near to where I worked in the mid '80's. They served frog legs and catfish and I liked the frog legs.
Some people were afraid of them.

[iPatG]

They're all farmed in Asia. It's so ridiculous how there are people that think that you can catch enough frog in the wild for export.

[POCLEE]

Here in Taiwan we have frogs legs too! We call them "chicken in the farm" (田雞)

[mrmister]

Those thousands of frogs living their whole lives on top of each other in that tiny pool 😢

[nearestyoutube]

I am absolutely confused by this video. Having worked Port Health on imports, the EU would expect any frog leg consignments from third-world countries (means outside of EU) to have Health Certificates and traceability of the foreign manufacturing plant to be equivalent to EU law (specifically EC 853 approvals). There's also not much stopping the French from starting up more frog farms for human consumption...? What am i missing here?

[guyfaux]

I had heard that the Aussies catch their invasive cane toads, neutralize the venom and sell them for their legs.

[raycenteno]

I've had it once, but had a good amount in that 1st try. Nothing to brag about. Its not something I would try again. I ate them in my friends wedding at one of the Buddhist temples in Florida. Here's a question I didn't ask Danny, "What about the rest of the frog? Don't you eat it too?" I honestly feel its a waste if they just concentrate on just the legs.

[natviolen]

Delicious. Fried in butter, parsley and garlic and with a glass of white wine plus baguette. I'm not French 😉