Cricket flour: the next big supplement?

[Kaido]

So a friend told me about Chapul energy bars from the Shark Tank TV show:

http://chapul.com/

Originally a Kickstarter project, these bars are made with nutritious cricket flour. They have a competitor called Exo:

http://www.exo.co/

Some factoids:

* 80% of the world eats bugs
* There are 1,462 recorded species of edible insects (crickets are the most popular)
* Crickets have 15% more iron than spinach
* As much Vitamin B12 as salmon
* 100 grams of crickets has 12.9 grams of protein (121 calories)

So...eating bugs is weird, but apparently a large part of the world does it. I have a dairy allergy (no whey protein for me) & a gluten allergy, so this works as a functional replacement as both a protein powder & alternative baking flour. Using bugs as food may sound gross, but they roast the crickets & grind it up into a flour, so there are no bug parts sticking out. So, on to the products...

Exo makes 2 bars:

1. Cacao Nut
2. Peanut Butter & Jelly

Chapul makes 3 bars:

1. Chaco Bar (peanut butter & chocolate)
2. Thai Bar (coconut, ginger, & lime)
3. Aztec Bar (dark chocolate, coffee, cayenne)

Chapul had a 3-pack sampler on Amazon for $13 shipped, so I gave that a try (super expensive at $4.34 per bar). We had a taste-test at work. I'm not a coffee guy, so I gave that one away (everyone hated it). The Thai bar was interesting...I'm not a big ginger fan (outside of sushi). Tasted a bit like a limey gingerbread cookie. Not terrible, but not my favorite. The Chaco bars were actually really good...tasted like a good-tasting energy bar. They're a bit similar to the Lara-type bars that use dates as the base ingredient & flavoring. I've read that crickets taste a bit like hazelnuts, but the bars actually didn't taste any different than any other energy bars I've had.

I considered ordering some flour to make my own bars, but it's really expensive (anywhere from $20 to $90 a pound) & I already have a bunch of non-dairy protein powders (there's egg protein powder, hemp protein, yellow pea, soy, etc., plenty of options). The thing that I am curious about using it for is for baking...gluten-free flours are generally pretty crummy (figuratively & literally). It has a bit more protein than wheat flour at a third of the calories. I've tried a variety of alternative flours (coconut, chickpea, almond, etc.) with mixed results for cooking, so I'm always on the lookout for good options to bake with. Bitty Foods is a baking company that sells cricket flour baked goods:

http://bittyfoods.com/

I have some of their cookies coming, so I'll see how they taste. Gluten-free baked goods are generally terrible, but these actually have some positive reviews, so I'm excited to have a tasty, grain-free cookie to try out! I'm still on the hunt for a good source of pure cricket flour; Bitty Food's flour is a mix (has other powders in it), so I'd rather try some pure cricket flour to throw in homemade energy bars & stuff.

Anyway...here's another lean protein source for you, if you're brave enough

 

[Maleficus]

Im good with my whey protein (i read you have an allergy, just saying eating insects isn't my thing)

 

[SP33Demon]

So a friend told me about Chapul energy bars from the Shark Tank TV show:

http://chapul.com/

Originally a Kickstarter project, these bars are made with nutritious cricket flour. They have a competitor called Exo:

http://www.exo.co/

Some factoids:

* 80% of the world eats bugs
* There are 1,462 recorded species of edible insects (crickets are the most popular)
* Crickets have 15% more iron than spinach
* As much Vitamin B12 as salmon
* 100 grams of crickets has 12.9 grams of protein (121 calories)

So...eating bugs is weird, but apparently a large part of the world does it. I have a dairy allergy (no whey protein for me) & a gluten allergy, so this works as a functional replacement as both a protein powder & alternative baking flour. Using bugs as food may sound gross, but they roast the crickets & grind it up into a flour, so there are no bug parts sticking out. So, on to the products...

Exo makes 2 bars:

1. Cacao Nut
2. Peanut Butter & Jelly

Chapul makes 3 bars:

1. Chaco Bar (peanut butter & chocolate)
2. Thai Bar (coconut, ginger, & lime)
3. Aztec Bar (dark chocolate, coffee, cayenne)

Chapul had a 3-pack sampler on Amazon for $13 shipped, so I gave that a try (super expensive at $4.34 per bar). We had a taste-test at work. I'm not a coffee guy, so I gave that one away (everyone hated it). The Thai bar was interesting...I'm not a big ginger fan (outside of sushi). Tasted a bit like a limey gingerbread cookie. Not terrible, but not my favorite. The Chaco bars were actually really good...tasted like a good-tasting energy bar. They're a bit similar to the Lara-type bars that use dates as the base ingredient & flavoring. I've read that crickets taste a bit like hazelnuts, but the bars actually didn't taste any different than any other energy bars I've had.

I considered ordering some flour to make my own bars, but it's really expensive (anywhere from $20 to $90 a pound) & I already have a bunch of non-dairy protein powders (there's egg protein powder, hemp protein, yellow pea, soy, etc., plenty of options). The thing that I am curious about using it for is for baking...gluten-free flours are generally pretty crummy (figuratively & literally). It has a bit more protein than wheat flour at a third of the calories. I've tried a variety of alternative flours (coconut, chickpea, almond, etc.) with mixed results for cooking, so I'm always on the lookout for good options to bake with. Bitty Foods is a baking company that sells cricket flour baked goods:

http://bittyfoods.com/

I have some of their cookies coming, so I'll see how they taste. Gluten-free baked goods are generally terrible, but these actually have some positive reviews, so I'm excited to have a tasty, grain-free cookie to try out! I'm still on the hunt for a good source of pure cricket flour; Bitty Food's flour is a mix (has other powders in it), so I'd rather try some pure cricket flour to throw in homemade energy bars & stuff.

Anyway...here's another lean protein source for you, if you're brave enough

I don't need anymore iron or B12 in my diet. This may be good for women for the iron. This is what happens when you have too much iron in the system:

Haemochromatosis may present with the following clinical syndromes:[3]

Cirrhosis of the liver
Diabetes due to pancreatic islet cell failure
Cardiomyopathy
Arthritis (iron deposition in joints)
Testicular failure
Tanning (bronzing) of the skin
Joint pain and bone pain[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_overload#Signs_and_symptoms

Dude, I like my testes.

I also get a lot of iron from Chlorella when detoxing, so I really don't need more. Otherwise, cool idea if it's cost effective to get protein that way. I remember reading that scientists are trying to solve africa's hunger issue with grub protein.

 

[utahraptor]

I won't start on insect protein unless all other traditional avenues are exhausted in the future. I think you need to be raised on this as opposed to being raised to think its icky for this to work.

 

[blackdogdeek]

Thanks, OP. I love your food-related posts. There's always something interesting in them.

 

[TallBill]

I'd be down to eat some, but would have no reason to go out of my way to do so. I've eaten whole crickets before and they're not bad. Taste like nuts.

 

[Kaido]

Im good with my whey protein (i read you have an allergy, just saying eating insects isn't my thing)

I don't think insects are anyone's thing

 

[Kaido]

I won't start on insect protein unless all other traditional avenues are exhausted in the future. I think you need to be raised on this as opposed to being raised to think its icky for this to work.

Yeah. I have eaten a lot of weird stuff in my life...everything from alligator to ostrich...but some things are just mentally off-limits, like horse. I'd sooner eat dog than horse :biggrin: I had read an article about how horse meat is making a huge comeback; there's a place in my state that pumps out something like 30,000 pounds a month for human consumption. But despite the saying "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!", I just don't think I could stomach it for some reason. I don't have any special affinity towards horses or anything, but it's just too weird...even bugs are more palatable.

Psychology is weird.

 

[Kaido]

Thanks, OP. I love your food-related posts. There's always something interesting in them.

I'll let you know when the bug cookies arrive

 

[Regs]

Does insect flour react with the same chemistry as wheat flour in baking? Yeast, baking soda, powder?

 

[Kaido]

Does insect flour react with the same chemistry as wheat flour in baking? Yeast, baking soda, powder?

Good read here:

http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/blogs/editor/2014/04/cricket-flour-baking-mixes.html

Having been off gluten for several years now, I can tell you that nothing reacts like wheat flour. Wheat flour is magical. I've tried every flour I can get my hands on over the past three years, everything from banana flour (popular in Australia) to garbanzo bean flour to coconut flour. Each is unique & generally terrible for baking

You usually have to combine flours to get a decent rise & consistency, or add in strange ingredients like cashew butter to get good results. Bitty Foods is one of the places doing a lot of cricket-flour baking:

http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/blogs/editor/2014/04/cricket-flour-baking-mixes.html

They sell a flour mix for baking made from cassava flour (tapioca - think fufu), cricket flour, coconut flour, tapioca starch, and xanthan gum. I ordered some cookies to try out first before ordering their flour mix (you have to order a minimum of $20 worth of flour) but it sounds like a decent mixture. A lot of times you'll use at least two different flours, like say quinoa & coconut flour, along with a starch (tapioca, potato, or arrowroot) and some kind of gum to bind it all together (xanthan or guar, or the even weirder stuff like agar agar or psyllium husks).

There are some surprisingly good resources on baking with bugs already. It's not a field I ever thought I'd delve into (or even really knew existed, haha), but I didn't die after eating the cricket bars, and they weren't even gross, so I'm willing to plunge ahead!

http://www.amazon.com/Edible-Adventu...dp/0544114353/

http://www.insectsarefood.com/recipes.html

http://www.eatyummybugs.com/recipes/

http://www.girlmeetsbug.com/ & http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-12/06/edible-bugs

http://bugmuscle.com/

 

[gradoman]

I'd eat it, but I wouldn't go and buy it. I mean, I doubt one would even taste it.

 

[Phanuel]

Interesting note in that article as well comparing the raw costs of conventional wheat flour vs whey vs crickets at 0.11/oz, 0.50/oz, and over $1/oz for the cricket. It's not cost effective yet for people without allergy issues.

And I've worked at a reptile shop and regularly snacked on live crickets but I'm not sure I'm comfortable eating them as a chicken/beef replacement just yet due to availability.

 

[HOSED]

they were giving out samples recently at a local store, Chapul bars, they tasted good but $3 per bar, not organic and the clerk was not sure if the crickets were free range.

~~~ Kaido ever tried brown rice flour, I just made muffins and they were decent.

Thread rating 10/10

 

[Kaido]

I'd eat it, but I wouldn't go and buy it. I mean, I doubt one would even taste it.

Yeah, and not only that, they're not widely-available yet, so you can't just get one in the checkout line at Whole Foods. It was almost $5 per bar when ordered from Amazon, which is ridiculous. I understand it's special ingredients, but if you can have dairy & other forms of protein powder (or regular flours), then meh. I think it's going to boil down to pricepoint & availability. If you're at GNC & see a cricket protein bar for a dollar, then it's an impulse buy. $4.34 per bar (sampler pack pricing) & having to wait for shipping...not so much. But it's new, so we'll see how it plays out...

 

[Kaido]

My Bitty Foods cookies arrived:

http://bittyfoods.com/

Comes in 3 flavors:

1. Chocolate chip
2. Orange ginger
3. Chocolate cardamon

They also sell their flour blend pre-packaged ($20 for 20 ounces):

Ingredients: Cassava flour, cricket flour [Gryllus assimilis, Acheta domesticus], coconut flour, tapioca starch, xanthan gum

Interestingly enough, cassava root (also known as yuca, not yucca - it's used to make tapioca & fufu and lots of other stuff) is the third largest source of food carbohydrates in the tropics after rice and maize, according to Wikipedia. Interesting. While cassava is the first ingredient, cricket flour is the second ingredient (not the main one). They do note that people with crustacean shellfish allergies may also be sensitive to cricket flour - it's not a 1:1 allergy, but they're in the same family, so that's something to be aware of.

I've used the other ingredients as well. Coconut flour is basically powdered sponge - super-absorbent. You can make pretty good cupcakes out of it by using a tiny bit of flour with a zillion eggs. A lot of gluten-free bakeries will use a coconut flour blend with another flour, such as quinoa flour. The starches & gums are also used to hold things together better.

The cookies are soft & crumbly, although somewhat dense - best enjoyed with a drink. They are small-sized cookies (think Famous Amos-sized). Chocolate chip was definitely the best one. Orange ginger was surprisingly good - they used a quality ginger that burned your throat, not just the flavoring. It wasn't really orangy tho - I think it would have been better with more orange flavor (they used orange zest). The chocolate cardamon was surprisingly good as well - it's like a dark chocolate brownie (but more crumbly).

We sampled them at work. Offering them got a bipolar reaction - people either freaked out & ran away, or said yeah OK I'll try them. No one hated them, surprisingly - they're not the best cookies ever, but they're pretty decent for a semi-healthy cookie. The price isn't terrible either - $10 for a bag is about on-par with what the special gluten-free cookies go for at my local grocery store ($6 to $10, but none of them are fresh-baked like these are).

My toddler liked them and ate like six right off the bat (again they're pretty small, like double-stuffed Oreo cookie-sized). I polished off what was leftover at work. Not bad. I don't know if I would go out of my way to order them online again, especially since you get a random shipping date (1 to 2 weeks since it's in que for fresh baking), but I wouldn't say no to eating more.

Bugs definitely have potential as a new food source in America, especially ground up with any weird flavors hidden. It's pretty pricey to buy the flour though - even the Bitty Foods custom flour blend is $20 for 20 ounces. I have plenty of other flour options in my pantry (coconut, almond, chickpea, banana, etc., all kinds of weird stuff), plus there are lots of protein powder options (egg white, hemp, soy, yellow pea, and so on), so it's not like I'm narrowed down to just eating bugs.

I think I'd be more willing to experiment with the flour if it was cheaper - I've seen pure cricket flour online for as high as $35 a pound, which is astronomical even by food allergy standards. Although given that it's typically used as a secondary ingredient, either as a flour or as a protein powder, that cost might not be so bad. The sustainability story is pretty good:

Take note, cricket flour is an especially excellent option for the Paleo and gluten-free eaters out there. They are full of protein, healthy fats, and nutrients like iron and magnesium, have a protein content that rivals beef cup-for-cup (70 grams per cup), and don’t produce nearly as much methane as a comparative beef farm. They take up less land and water resources than soy and are more productive with their feed than cattle. According to Megan Miller, founder of Bitty Foods, if crickets are fed 10 pounds of food, they produce 1 pound of waste and 9 pounds of protein. On the other hand, the same quantity of cattle feed would result in only 1 pound of beef, and 9 pounds of waste product. Each female cricket also has a life span of 6 weeks, and produce 15,000 eggs during that time, so the population grows rapidly. In terms of space, waste, water, and nutritional punch, cricket farming is a much more sustainable operation. Plus, they actually have a delicious nutty flavor! Hopefully, being in the form of a flour will encourage more people to include healthy and sustainable crickets in their diets.

I would be willing to try more bug-based foods down the road for sure...nothing tasted bad or weird at all, no complaints other than the relatively high cost. Speaking of alternative protein sources, Beyond Meat is making headway in terms of an actual meat replacement/alternative:

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3035034...o-make-meat-tastier-healthier-and-animal-free

If it comes to a store near me, I'll definitely pick some up & give it a try! Neat to see people working on interesting (and platable) food source alternatives!

 

[Kaido]

I'd eat it, but I wouldn't go and buy it. I mean, I doubt one would even taste it.

Yeah, the reviews all said it tastes a bit nutty, like hazelnuts...I couldn't detect any flavor, but I'm also not a supertaster (my wife is, but she refused to try them haha).

 

[CPA]

my gag reflex kicked in just reading your posts

 

[Kaido]

my gag reflex kicked in just reading your posts

If you can get over the mental barrier, it's a non-issue taste & texture-wise. Similar to sushi...sushi's great once you get past the whole "raw fish" thing

 

[blackdogdeek]

Yeah, I'd expect that since it's been ground into a flour that there wouldn't be any very strong flavor from the flour itself.

Thanks for posting the review!

 

[alkemyst]

I'd be down to eat some, but would have no reason to go out of my way to do so. I've eaten whole crickets before and they're not bad. Taste like nuts.

This can be taken the wrong way...I chuckled.

 

[JBT]

I'd try one for sure, but I'm not going out of my way to spend $4 on a single bar. They would have to be down in the $2 range for me to check em out

 

[Chawalla]

Yeah I tried one of the Blueberry Vanilla flavored bars the other day and it was really good. I think it was from Exo? Has anyone tried using one of the flavored cricket flour products? I saw one that is a Peruvian Chocolate.

http://www.cricketflours.com/chocolate-cricket-flour-1-4-lb/

 

[Kaido]

Yeah I tried one of the Blueberry Vanilla flavored bars the other day and it was really good. I think it was from Exo? Has anyone tried using one of the flavored cricket flour products? I saw one that is a Peruvian Chocolate.

http://www.cricketflours.com/chocolate-cricket-flour-1-4-lb/

Chocolate flavored cricket powder

 

[inachu]

You are what you eat.

ewwwww