Icelandic startup offers insect protein bars

Icelandic startup Crowbar Protein has successfully raised funds for a crowdfunding campaign for its Jungle bar protein bar project and will soon start selling it. The key ingredient in the bars is cricket flour.

Other ingredients include dates, sesame seeds, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, and chocolate. A 50-gram bar contains 200 kcal and 16% protein. Developers especially emphasize the lack of gluten, peanuts, soy and dairy products. A pack of 6 bars is offered for $ 25.

According to the startup, about a third of the world's population of people already eat insects. The developers aim to accustom the remaining two-thirds to this. The benefit of eating small crunchies is to save resources.



For example, to get a kilogram of protein from crickets, you need 1.7 kg of grass - unlike cows, where 10 kg of food is needed for this. Even fewer crickets need water - a resource that is in short supply in many regions of the world, and in some others it becomes difficult to access . 8 liters per 1 kg for crickets, 1250 liters per 1 kg for poultry and 8350 liters for cows. A constant population growth requires a constant increase in food production.

The head of the startup, Buey Bjarmar Adalsteinson, has long been interested in the use of insects for food (despite the fact that they are practically absent in cold Iceland). For example, last year, his fly farm received widespread press coverage.where you can grow a large number of nutrient larvae from garbage and waste.

Startup is not alone in its aspirations. Company Tiny Farms is working on an open project, through which one can easily be grown insects at home (just be sure to ask permission from the home), and the designer Katharina Unger last year developed a beautiful home farm for growing larvae.

Will such food be popular in the future? And not only where there are no alternatives available, but also where there is a choice? Adalsteinson claims that he has already received requests from interested store owners in Europe, the USA and Canada. In addition, you can recall that even 30 years ago it was not accepted to eat raw fish - and now sushi is available and popular almost everywhere.