Insect Food, China's Next Wave of Food Industry Trend?

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Source: Wilbur (ID: aotokuer) edited this article based on the information from Modern Farmer (ID: xiandainongjiang), TechGastronomy (ID:TechGastronomy) and Bugsolutely’s Official website.

It is said that except for unknown creatures, everything can be Chinese’s food. But who said that only Chinese is crazy about food? Believe it or not, one of the most popular diet in foreign countries is: insects!

FBIF R&D WeChat group

The whole world is developing new protein resources, and in addition to meat protein, plant protein, that is insect protein. Last week, there was an intense discussion in FBIF R&D WeChat group, and the topic was rightly– edible insect food.

People’s interestsand curiosity about edible insects, a new type of food, drive the development of insect food in America and Europe. A group of start-up companies are using insects, such as crickets, as raw materials to produce new food, such as insect chips, insect sticks and insect powder. They observe a great opportunity: developing insect protein is less harmful to the environment than developing other traditional protein sources, which means compared with chickens, cows and pigs, the resources consumed during the progress of feeding, harvesting and processing are less.

Insect Food, the Leading Food in the Future?

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has published a report that the species of edible insects in the world are more than 1900, and eating insects has many benefits to human body. Insects are rich in protein, fatty acids, vitamins, fibers and minerals and are a healthy food source. But most importantly, cricket flour is one of the most sustainable proteins.

There is a low demand for fodder and land in the progress of insect propagation. To produce 1 kg of protein, the fodder feeding livestock is 12 times the insects, water needed by livestock is 20,000 times the insects, while the greenhouse gas emitted byinsects is only 1% of the livestock. In other words, insects are a robust food source with less environmental harm. They convert food into protein more effectively than any other farm animal, and Greenhouse gas emissions of insect are far below the animal husbandry’s (18%), which is the world’s largest greenhouse gas emissions source.

On the other hand, with deteriorating climate and increasing number of world’s population, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is considering to promote and popularize insect foods to replace livestock meat in order to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions.

Bugs Crawling to the Supermarket Shelves – The New World of Insect Based Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG)

Cricket is a perfect source of protein, because it contains all essential amino acids and rich trace elements, such as Omega-3s, Calcium, B12, Iron and Magnesium. The iron and calcium content in cricket are higher than what in beef and milk respectively. At present, 80% of the world’s population has eaten food made from crickets. In addition, cricket is also a kind of highly sustainable food. The carbon dioxide produced by it is less than 1% of dairy cows’, and at the same time it occupies little area and can convert fodder into protein with a higher efficiency.

EXO Protein Bar

Do you still remember the scene in Snowpiercer that people made cockroaches into protein block providing passengers to eat? Two Americans, Gabi Lewis and Greg Sewitz, developed protein bars using crickets as raw materials, which not only can be food replacement, but also can be snacks eaten before or after workout to replenish energy and nutrition. They found that insect protein is a huge market where is full of challenges.

In 2014, they founded EXO to study insect protein products. And the first issues, 50,000 proteinbars, were sold out super-fast within a few weeks on the Internet.

Now EXO has raised $ 5.6 million, and attracted a large number of investors, including the famous American rapper Nas and the angel investor of Uber and Facebook, Timothy Ferriss. Investor Accel Foods expressed that EXO will be the leader of sustainable food in the future.

Cricket Pasta

Although most start-ups of insect food are based in the U.S. and Europe, you may be surprised by that Thailand is the first and biggest cricket food producing country in the world.

Cricket Pasta made by Bugsolutely, the world’s only spaghetti with 20% cricket flour, is very original and healthy. The high content of cricket flour makes its color and taste comparable with whole wheat pasta and roasted almonds. The raw materials of Cricket Pasta are made from farmed crickets, andthe processing progress is strictly monitored by the farm, and with GMP and HACCP authentications.

Bugsolutely is Thailand’s largest cricket food producer. Its founder, Massimo Reverberi was born in Milan, and graduated from The University of Milan. He was one of the co-founders of Prima Pagina, a marketing agency (from 2000 to 2010, its annual sales was more than 5 million euros). At the end of 2012, he sold his stocks and began to explore business opportunities in Southeast Asia.

Mr. Reverberi will come to China this month and give a speech in FBIF2017 with “Bugs Crawling to the Supermarket Shelves – The New World of Insect Based Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG)”. How does the prospects of insect food in Chinese and Western markets like? Why some people say that cricket pasta would lead the world revolution in China, Thailand and even the whole world? Let’s keep an eye on Massimo’s speech!