It’s the fourth annual World Edible Insect Day, and over the past four years New Zealand has started to change its attitude toward insect protein. Chain restaurant Mexico now offers cricket flour tortillas, Auckland Zoo distributed ant-sprinkled cocktails, and Eat Crawlers has repackaged their edible insects for supermarkets instead of quirky design stores.
Fewer resources are required to farm insects, which are also a nutritional goldmine. It takes 21,000 litres of water to produce a kilogram of beef, compared to just one litre to produce one kilogram of cricket protein.
Crickets contain all nine amino acids, so are a great source of protein. They’re also higher in protein than other animals, with 100g of cricket containing 68g of protein. In contrast, 100g of chicken contains 25g of protein. Edible insects have higher protein levels than beef, more iron than kale, and comparable levels of B1 and B2 to spirulina.
To encourage people to try an insect or two, Eat Crawlers is offering 20 percent off everything on their website. Just use the code EDIBLEINSECTDAY to get your hands on a salted caramel scorpion, some lightly salted crickets, or an ant lollipop.
To learn more, check out Eat Crawlers’ FAQs about edible insects.
