Welcome to Thailand, the land of smiles, the world’s most beautiful beaches, and capital of edible insect consumption.
Ok, maybe the Tourism Authority should stick to the tagline, “Amazing Thailand,” but you get the idea. It’s easy to walk down a street in Bangkok and find a vendor selling fried insects. These tasty snacks are popular among all Thais. In fact, 80% of the world eats insects. It’s only westerners that have stopped and forgotten that insects are among the best sources of protein, and the most sustainable. While traveling to hundreds of different countries and eating bugs like the local people is possible, Thailand is where edible insects are also a business, this is because they farm the insects. There are over 20,000 farmers breeding crickets in Thailand. When we developed an interest in this sustainable food, we realized we are in the right place to start a company. A social enterprise, to be precise, with a big untapped potential market.
What we’re referring to is not about fried, whole insects, of course. It would be hard to convince people to start a new nutritional behavior by going to that extreme. To help ease people into the “insects as food” mindset, we are about to launch cricket pasta. It is made from cricket flour and mixed with other healthy flours as well. As simple as that: one of the most common foods eaten in the west. A food that gets boiled and eaten with a sauce: baby steps towards edible insects. It’s ecological and healthy food. Tasty, too. How is all this possible? See the list below!
Food quality. Crickets are made up of mostly protein, up to 70% of their weight. That’s more than double the amount that a cow has. They also contain as much calcium as milk, are rich in Omega-3, and a have as much vitamin B12 as a salmon.
Sustainability. They need very little food and water (1,000 time less than a cow) and they grow fast. Crickets only require 2 kg of feed to make a 1 kg of protein (while a cow needs 10 kg). There is a looooong list of reasons why insects are the green way to proteins, see this article, for example.
Food to feed the world. United Nations’ FAO agency has been promoting edible insects for years, as they might help undeveloped countries now, and the entire world in 15 years, when we are expected to be more than 9 billion on Earth. See the FAO document here.
Gluten free, antibiotics free. Our pasta is made in a gluten free factory and is certified gluten free. The pasta is also packed with added benefits, such as no cholesterol and zero antibiotics (rice and crickets do not need them!)