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Jan 5, 2023 arrives, cricket, flour, food, green, light
LEuropean Union has just authorized the placing on the market of Acheta domesticus, i.e. the domestic cricket, in partially defatted powder as a new food. Here’s everything we know about cricket flour.
According to theFood Safety Authority cricket flour “meets the conditions for placing on the market”
The Commission Implementing Regulation EU 2023/5 of 3 January 2023 was published on Community Official Gazette. And with this publication the opening of the European Union is confirmed. Even if in the continent – and in particular in our country – the consumption of insects in the daily diet is seen as something absurd and disgusting, in many other parts of the world it is simple normality.
L’Food Safety Authority she expressed herself, consulted by the EU Commission. «The partially degreased powder of Acheta domesticus (house cricket) is safe under the proposed conditions and levels of use».
And it reads. «This scientific opinion therefore presents sufficient grounds to establish that the partially defatted powder of Acheta domesticuswhen used in multigrain breads and rolls, crackers and bread sticks, granola bars, dry bakery premixes, cookies, filled and unfilled pasta dry products, sauces, processed products potato-based, legume and vegetable dishes, pizza, pasta products, whey powder, meat substitute products, soups and soup concentrates or powders, snacks made from cornmeal, in beer-like beverages, chocolate products, nuts and oilseeds, non-chip snack foods and meat preparations, intended for the general population, meets the conditions for placing on the market».
Cricket. Credit: Getty Images
Only a company will be able to place this food on the EU market
How will we be able to recognize if cricket flour is present in a product? It will read “partially defatted powder of Acheta domesticus (house cricket)”. And, apparently, this label will indicate that this ingredient could cause allergic reactions in consumers with known allergies to shellfish and crustacean products, shellfish and shellfish products, and house dust mites.
For five years starting January 24, 2023 (date of entry into force of the EU regulation), it will just be the company Cricket One Co. Ltd to be able to place this food on the EU market‘unless a subsequent applicant obtains an authorization for that novel food without reference to scientific data protected under Article 3 or with the consent of Cricket One Co. Ltd’.
Brothers of Italy: «Measure bordering on insanity»
The approval of cricket flour did not find the support of the MEPs of the League who denounced: «Other than the protection of excellence, Made in Italy and the Mediterranean diet: for Brussels the priorities are insects on the plate, synthetic food and Nutriscore. But does it seem normal to you?». And they post on Twitter an image with an inscription that leaves no room for misunderstandings: «Eat them yourself».
They are also echoed by Maria Cristina Caretta, deputy of Brothers of Italy and vice-president of the Agriculture commission in Montecitorio. He told ANSA. «The introduction of cricket powder as a food in the EU, decided by the European Commission, it is part of the plan to destroy our food traditionsthe excellence of the Mediterranean diet and Made in Italy».
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It’s still. «It is disheartening to learn that in the face of economic-energy, diplomatic and political crises, Europe is able to make itself alive only with measures bordering on madness, such as the regulation of insects as food. For us the future ofnutrition is another, based on the territory, tradition and quality. And we will certainly fight to defend it.
Slowly, we are being led to believe that eating sustainably raised meat is bad.
There’s a big push to mass produce bugs for food. There’s a big push to get you to stop eating meat.
The world’s largest cricket farm is in Chiang Mai, Thailand. If the trend continues, expect that cricket providers will find cheaper ways to feed the crickets and mass produce them — while slick marketing teams try to make you feel guilty for enjoying Grassfed meat and free range chicken.
The FDA allows crickets to be used for and in food, under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
Consumer Lab tested two popular cricket powders: Entomo Farms and Exo. They found one heavily contaminated with arsenic, a carcinogen — 5x the inorganic arsenic found in the most contaminated rice.
Crickets concentrate the toxins from their food. If arsenic is in their food, it is in them.
Cricket flour, or cricket powder, is a made out of milled crickets, and whatever they were fed has concentrated in their little cricket bodies.
ACHETA – FUTURE FOOD
Healthy, delicious and very nutritious crispy snacks from dried crickets.
– UP TO 65% PROTEIN
– WIDE RANGE OF FLAVORS
– LACTOSE AND GMO FREE
Having a healthy snack has never been so easy and delicious!
Familiarity seems to be the key word. Suzy Badaracco, president of Culinary Tides, a company that forecasts foods trends, predicts that the edible-bug business will certainly grow, but most likely for insect-flour-based products like protein bars, chips, cookies, and cereals—that is, foods in which you can’t see actual bug parts. The time is right, Badaracco adds, because American consumers have a growing interest in sustainability and nutrition, especially when it comes to high-protein foods. And she seems to be right. Shortly after I chatted with Badaracco, JetBlue announced that it would begin offering Exo cricket-flour protein bars to passengers on JFK-to-LAX flights starting in 2015. Whole-insect consumption, on the other hand, has no historical ties to the US, so it has a lot to overcome before penetrating deeper into the retail and restaurant scenes.
We could only find cricket bars in hipster-riddled markets and Whole Foods. Will that change? Bitty Foods sales are through the roof—they tripled in a recent 3-week span following some good press. What’s more, celebrity chef Tyler Florence joined as culinary director of the company to help develop “a range of products that will go straight into national distribution within a year,” says Miller. She couldn’t comment on specific products but says there’s potential for things like breads and pastas. “Stuff that’s normally just a carb bomb can be turned into something really nutritious,” she notes. And for you number-crunching health nuts, bugs really are good for you: Dried crickets have 60 to 70% protein—cup for cup, that’s comparable to beef—and contain omega-3 fatty acids, B vitamins, iron, and calcium.
Stuart Tyson
Stuart Tyson
All this potential growth begs the question: Where the heck will all these bugs come from? Right now there aren’t enough suppliers to meet demand—only about five farms producing food-grade insects exist in North America, which means bug-based foods will remain pricey. For context, a bag of Bitty Foods’ baking flour goes for $20. But interest in bug farming is growing, and, thanks to agricultural technology companies like Tiny Farms, people now have the support to start. “I literally get e-mails every day from people who want to start farming,” says Tiny Farms’ CEO, Daniel Imrie-Situnayake, whose company is creating a model for what a modern, highly efficient insect farm looks like. The goal: Develop a network of these farms, buy their insects, ensure their quality, and sell them to manufacturers. “With the systems we’re designing, production will rise and prices will drop,” he says. “So if you want to replace some of your expensive beef or chicken with insects, that’s going to become very cost-effective within the next few years.”
Oh, and it’s not just us who could be eating more insects—we may one day find ourselves shopping for bug-fed beef, too. What does that mean? FAO’s Paul Vantomme sees some of the biggest potential for insects in the animal-feed sector. “The main sources of protein for animal feed are currently soy and fish meal, so we’re essentially feeding livestock things humans could eat, which isn’t very efficient,” he says. “With insects, we can feed them organic waste that’s not competing with human demands.” Not to mention, farming insects requires very little space and water, compared with something like soybeans. But, Vantomme cautions, it will likely be a few years before there’s enough production to make insect meal cost-competitive with current animal-feed sources, as well as the development of the required regulations for the use of insects in our feed chains.
So, whichever way we spin it, it looks like bugs will eventually enter the food supply. Could eating a chocolate-chip cricket cookie save the planet? No, but down the road, the cumulative effect of a large number of people eating small quantities of insect-based foods just might ensure there’s more meat and resources to go around for the burgeoning global population—and help you hit your protein quota in the process.
Stephanie Eckelkamp is a freelance writer, health coach, and former associate editor for Prevention covering health, food, and nutrition. She’s a graduate of Syracuse University and obsessed with dogs, exploring the great outdoors, and chunky peanut butter.
Would you? Should you eat them?
For me: NO!
Crickets. Learn how to read ingredient labels.
Acheta domesticus may be on the label – it is Cricket. Some are hiding it by calling it “Acheta Protein” and promoting it as a great alternative to animal protein.
“Made with Cricket Protein Powder”
ALERT! If you have a shellfish allergy it is likely to cross react with cricket acheta protein causing a severe reaction. If you have an extreme allergy to shellfish and unknowingly eat cricket or aches, this could cause an adverse response—up to and including death—without immediate medical attentio
this could cause an adverse response—up to and including death—without immediate medical attention.
Hoppy Planet Foods’ “Chocolate Chirp Cookies”
Cheddar Cheese Puffs product from Actually Foods
Exo Protein bars.
•••The lie: “higher in protein than animal protein” … You’d need to eat a bag of cricket powder, maybe 10 Tbs, to equal the protein you get from a 3 oz serving of free range meat.
Read labels!
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