A culinary instructor at Nova Scotia Community College in Cape Breton is educating students on a more humane approach to cooking and preparing lobsters. Adam White, who has a background as a chef for 15 years and has been teaching culinary arts for 20 years, has adopted a new method based on research from England.
White’s decision to teach this method stems from England’s plan to ban the boiling of live lobsters by 2030, emphasizing the importance of humane treatment of animals. This measure aligns with the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act passed in England in 2022, which acknowledges that decapod crustaceans like lobsters can experience pain.
Traditionally, chefs would boil lobsters alive in salted water, but White is now teaching students a more compassionate approach. He advises freezing lobsters for 20 to 30 minutes to reduce pain sensitivity before quickly and humanely killing them with a knife.
The practice of boiling lobsters alive is prohibited in several countries, including Switzerland, Norway, and New Zealand. The move by England follows a review by the London School of Economics, citing research by Professor Robert Elwood from Queen’s University Belfast, who has studied pain in crustaceans and cephalopods for a decade.
Elwood’s experiments revealed that these animals exhibit stress responses consistent with pain, prompting a reevaluation of traditional cooking methods. Nova Scotia’s Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture stated that there are currently no plans to change existing practices in the province.
The shift towards more humane treatment of lobsters in culinary education reflects a growing awareness of animal welfare in food production practices.
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