Is eating bugs just another food fad?

When Harman Singh Johar answers the phone, he sounds startled. "Sorry," he says. "I was staring into an oven full of roasting crickets when you called." His role as chief innovation officer at Aspire Food Group involves trying come up with the next generation of insect-roasting equipment to produce more cricket flour, faster and at a higher quality.

Ever since he set up World Ento, a US-based edible insect supplier, while still in college, Johar has been working to produce, promote and develop the growing market around entomophagy, the practice of eating insects. "Aspire FG have offices in Canada, Mexico and Ghana but were interested in entering the US market," he says. "So they familiarised themselves with the local community here and everyone pointed towards us."

Aspire FG describes itself as a "disruptive business" whose aim is to innovate and advance the responsible farming and consumption of insects. Bill Clinton is one of its advisers.

Johar recently set up a production kitchen and indoor cricket farm in Austin, Texas. "Our farm is about 13,000sq ft with row after row of racks that have box after box full of crickets. It looks like a room full of mini skyscrapers. It's quite a labour-intensive process as we constantly need to ensure their water is fresh, the feed is correct and the temperature is right."

That seems like a big cricket farm to be in the middle of a city. Does that mean there is a demand there?

“The core demand is still very much a niche market,” he says. “Weird foodies, hyper-environmentalists, people into the Paleo and gluten-free diets. Austin is the perfect microcosm to truly find the right target audience as there are a lot of people here interested in innovative ideas, who care about the environment and care about being healthy.”

Eating insects is not new to Europe. "There's a lot of entomophagous research coming out of the Netherlands right now," says Marianne Shockley from the University of Georgia's department of entomology. "Historically most of the research and interest has come from Mexico and then of course in Africa and Asia, which makes sense as it is already part of their culture."

It's here too now. There was even a company – Bitty Foods – at the Dublin Food Summit offering high-protein baked goods made from cricket flour.

Beef to cricket

It is estimated that about 1,500 insects are consumed regularly by humans. Much of the attention in the West right now is on crickets as they are easy to farm and are a significant source of protein. “If you compare beef to crickets on a one-to-one ratio, a gram of each contains the same amount of protein,” says Shockley. “But the advantage of insect protein is that it has added vitamins and minerals.”

Where do vegetarians lie in this debate? “Those who do eat insects are known as insectarians,” she says. “I have several vegetarian friends who for moral reasons don’t eat meat but will eat insects.

“Crickets are harvested, put into a freezer and then go into a state of hibernation and this is considered an ethical way to farm them.”

Stigma and the bottom line

There appear to be two main challenges facing those promoting entomophagy in the West: cost and public perception.

"Cricket flour costs twice the price of beef to produce right now," says Johar. "But insect farming in the US is a very outdated industry. It hasn't moved on since the 1970s. Cricket farmers like Armstrong Farms in Louisiana and Georgia are still producing 4-5 million crickets per week, for the fishing and pet food trade. But there hasn't been pressure to innovate and it is heavily reliant on labour which is the main expense. Every single day we're trying new ways of automating cricket rearing."

Then there’s the whole issue of eating bugs. “There is a western stigma against insect consumption and we need to shift how people view insects from pests to something beneficial,” says Shockley. “Right now people make too much of a connection between insects and disease.”

There is no specific food and safety regulation around insect production but Johar is confident that his company meets the highest standards. “Our crickets must be held at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for five minutes,” he says.

“These are the temperatures we’re hitting now to ensure we’re killing all microbial life. Our products must also have a shellfish allergy warning, as there is a small chance the same allergy could be triggered from the protein [chitin] that the insects have.”

Even if the public is satisfied food safety standards are met, a lot of education will still be needed to overcome the stigma. “The more people see these products available and can try them out in their own kitchens, the more comfortable they will become,” says Shockley.

One start-up is taking a novel approach. Hopper Foods makes cricket flour-based cereal-style bars that the company is increasingly targeting at children. "We've exhibited at lots of tasting events and, based on our experience, kids are not phased by it at all," says Jack Ceadel, the founder of Hopper Foods.

“Unlike the rest of us, kids haven’t fully developed the sense that it is wrong until they’re about 10 years old. They think it’s fun. Plus they relish the chance to gross out their parents.”