A prominent food identity says Pacific Islanders would also be offended by the torrent of online abuse that's been directed at a Chinese woman because she ate fruit bat soup.
Amid the escalating coronavirus crisis, a video of travel vlogger Wang Menyun eating a whole fruit bat was used by thousands of Twitter users to attack the eating habits of Chinese people and blame them for the disease outbreak.
The response prompted Ms Wang to issue a statement, in which he apologised for eating the bat and clarified that the incident took place in Palau in 2016, not in China.
But Vanuatu cafe owner, Votausi Mackenzie-Reur, who is also a passionate supporter of local cuisine, says Ms Wang has nothing to apologise for.
"It's part of our diet, we've been eating it for generations," she said.
Ms Mackenzie-Reur says she's never heard of anyone getting sick from eating fruit bat, or flying fox as the animal is called in Vanuatu.
"Because if that is that case we would all be dead in Vanuatu, in Palau, in other Pacific Islands countries," she said.
Fruit bats are known to carry a host of diseases that can be deadly to humans and they have been linked to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in China.
The animals can spread disease via their droppings, urine and saliva but Professor John Mackenzie, an expert on tropical infectious diseases, says eating them does not pose a health risk.
"There's no evidence that they have ever infected people from eating fruit bats that have been cooked," he said.
Ms Mackenzie-Reur said the attacks on Wang Menyun are also offensive to Pacific Islanders.
"Definitely we would be really offended because this is part of our traditional diet for generations from our great, great-grandfathers up to us now".