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Bugging out: Is cricket flour on your menu?

Many in the foodservice industry are touting cricket flour as the next "super protein."

May 11, 2015 by Darrel Suderman — President CEO, Food Technical Consulting

Many in the foodservice industry are touting cricket flour as the next "super protein," so will it soon be an ingredient on menus? Why not!

According to a nutritional insect fact sheet published by Iowa State University Entomology Department, February 25, 2000, crickets have a 12.9 percent protein content versus the 28.2 percent protein of caterpillars. That means crickets have half the protein of chicken and beef, which contain about 25 grams of protein per 100 grams of meat, according to data from Iowa State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The edible cricket companies like to emphasize that if you're talking about the percentage of protein in dried beef versus dried cricket, crickets win by 22 percent, according to Alexander McCall, author of Startups Pitch Cricket Flour as The Best Protein You Could Eat, August 15, 2014.

According to Alexander McCall, a lot of people are excited about the potential of edible insects. A 2013 report from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization noted that insects like crickets, mealworms and grasshoppers are nutritional powerhouses high in protein, fat and the essential amino acids lysine and tryptophan, which are scarce in cereal proteins like soy. Companies can also farm insects on far less land and emit fewer greenhouse gases than traditional livestock.

EXO Bars founders

Exo Co-CEOs Gabi Lewis and Greg Sewitz hopped into the edible insect market as Lewis pondered turning his homemade protein bars into a business. The result –– a powder Sewitz refers to as "cricket flour" –– was incorporated into the bars as a substitute for plain protein powder made from soy. Exo bars contain between 270 and 300 calories and 40 crickets' worth of powder. It's a slightly sweet and filling bar — we found that it kept us sated for several hours. They're going for $36 for a 12-pack, or $32 for a monthly subscription.

The cricket farming business appears to be growing in North America. Bitty Foods sources its crickets from farms in Ohio, Georgia, central California and Montreal, Canada, with another farm set to open in Minneapolis. But cricket flour is a confusing misnomer because it is often used interchangeably for ground crickets, which, when used alone, are not a functional baking ingredient.The crickets in Exo's bars are raised for human consumption and fed an organic grain mixture, Sewitz says. 

EXO sells four flavors of cricket protein bars: cocoa nut, peanut butter and jelly, blueberry vanilla, and apple cinnamon.

MOM endorsed?

A competitor, Bitty Foods, has found a surprisingly strong following among a peculiar demographic –– moms. "There's a need among moms who want to get more protein in their kids' diets, but it can be hard to feed them things like a steak," she says. "If you can give them foods that are appealing, like a cookie [with cricket flour] that's actually more akin to an energy bar, that's magic for moms."

New food innovation is not dead

Just when you may be getting bored with your favorite QSR food product, companies like EXO and Bitty Foods are here to remind us that food innovation is alive and well! Oh, I forgot to tell you that they also feed the crickets organic food. I am now thinking organic cricket protein enhanced pizza crusts. I’m hooked!