For those of you who enjoyed the news posts on the insect rearing gadgets that you can use in your home to raise your own insect food (Farm 432: Farming insects for food to feed the future and The Hive: Farming insects to feed the future part 2), but were not quite ready to make the leap into this arena, because seriously, how’s it gonna taste? Well, now you can give insects a try by incorporating cricket flour into your cookies, muffins, cakes, pancakes, pasta or bread using High Protein Baking Flour from Bitty Foods (a company based in the U.S.). This grain-free flour contains a mixture of “Cassava flour, cricket flour [Gryllus assimilis, Acheta domesticus], coconut flour, tapioca starch, [and] xanthan gum”. Where do they get their crickets?
We source our crickets exclusively from farms in the U.S. and Canada that exceed USDA requirements and supply their insects with high quality feed… [we] freeze the crickets before processing them, essentially putting them to sleep… They are then boiled to remove away any bacteria… dry roasted and milled into a fine powder, and then this powder is blended with cassava and coconut to create our grain-free baking flour.
The flour is free of nuts, dairy, and gluten but is not certified as gluten free. It is also important to note that people who have an allergy to crustacean shellfish may have a reaction to this flour so you will want to talk to your doctor before trying this product. The High Protein Baking Flour is available from Bitty Foods for $19.99 + shipping. Or if you would rather taste one of Bitty Foods creations, you may purchase one of their six-ounce cookie mixes that make 12 cookies (Coco Chai Cookie, Chocolate Chip Cookies, or Orange Ginger Cookies) for $9.99 + shipping. Who knows, after trying this out, you may want to give one of the insect farms a try!
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Kathleen have you tried it yet? 😉
I’m not putting this in my snickerdoodles until I hear someone say it’s good 🙂
There’s a USDA requirement for farming crickets?!
Not really, but this:
http://bigcricketfarms.com/faq.html
“Are BCF crickets USDA approved?
While the USDA does not currently have explicit standards for the production of insects as human food, Big Cricket Farms adheres strictly to the USDA standards for food safety in order to ensure that our crickets are as healthy as can be.”
and this:
http://globenewswire.com/news-release/2015/07/13/751380/10141400/en/USDA-Funds-Insect-Farming-Research-and-Insect-Based-Food-by-Company-All-Things-Bugs-LLC.html
“July 13, 2015 – New research begins today in the first U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) funded project to focus on insect farming for human food, concentrating on improving efficiency and lowering costs in farming crickets.”
Julie – I haven’t tried it yet because I’m searching for a cheaper option that is still made in the U.S. There are options available from Amazon but some of those come from Thailand. I am determined to try it! How could I call myself an entomologist otherwise? 😉
Thanks for the info Betty! I love it!
Jiminy Cricket! Who would have thought it?
I would love to have comparisons as to nutrition, environmental impact, taste, etc. between wheat, cricket, soy, rice, and other types of flours.
Hi,
On our page, “The Future of Food”, we have lots of amazing info graphics, nutrition profiles and comparison charts.
http://entomofarms.com/future-of-food/
Hope this helps,
Be sure to reach out if you have any further questions.
A coworker here uses this and has brought in some. I ate them before she told us. I have to say I never noticed. It’s a bit odd thinking about but I never would have known had she not told us.
The brownies she makes with it to me lack the “brownie” consistency, but that might have nothing to do with the flower, it might just be how she makes them.
Andrew – sometimes it’s best not knowing, eh?
If Climate Change is going to threaten our food supply so much that we will have to eat crickets to survive, …
Why wouldn’t this be considered Gluten Free then?
Probably because they can’t guarantee that the machinery that processes something (I’m guessing the cassava) isn’t also used to process something with gluten, and so there may be minor amounts of it mixed in.
Jack – I assume it is just as DStaal said, that they are not certified yet as gluten free either due to possibly using the same equipment that might process gluten products, or they just have not obtained the certification yet.
The Bitty Food website states this, “Note for those that are especially sensitive: we are not yet gluten-free certified, and our flour is made in a facility that also processes tree nuts.”
Hi,
Like us, the crickets and resulting powder (after processing) are what they eat.
Crickets are poor converters of gluten so, if the crickets are fed glutenous grains in their diets, the gluten shows up in the powder. Our lab analysis showed this at approximately 80ppm.
Therefore we worked with our feed manufacturer to come up with a great NON GMO, Organic, gluten free grain feed. Now we have it at 0ppm for gluten in this line of powder we offer. Gluten free cricket powder. It is also USDA certified organic.
Use coupon code “onus” for 20% off: http://entomofarms.com/product/gluten-free-cricket-flour/
Hope this helps,
Entomo Farms
Entomo Farms – Thank you for the information, it was eye opening. Thanks for the coupon code too!