The shift toward bugs as healthy food source

Cricket flour to be now available in select stores, Sylvain Charlebois says.

Loblaw, the largest food distribution company in the country, is now selling cricket flour. The product itself is not new, as many specialty stores have been selling it for a few years now. But Loblaw is the first major retailer to sell the product under its own private label.

For Loblaw, whose head office is located at 1 President’s Choice in Brampton, Ont., this is not a decision that was made lightly. Given the growing number of consumers looking for protein alternatives — beyond the meat trifecta of beef, pork and chicken — selling cricket flour is a sign that the protein wars in Canada may have reached a new level.

Most of the world’s population, about 80 per cent of us, eat bugs regularly. In the Western world, however, this is still not mainstream, mainly due to the creepycrawly factor.

The fact is, though, that we have all eaten bugs at some time, deliberately or not. Food safety research has shown repeatedly that bugs regularly get into the human food chain, through grains, vegetables, fruits, or other means. Food safety perfection is just an ideal, but bugs are not harmful either. Furthermore, other research has also suggested that over a lifetime, the average human could eat up to eight bugs alone merely while sleeping.

Disgusted enough yet? Bugs surround us, whether we like it or not, but to collectively accept them as an integral part of our food supply chain is still a psychological stretch.

For Loblaw though, it is about health and sustainability, and the case for using crickets is actually very compelling. A 2.5 tablespoon serving has 90 calories and 13 grams of protein. It also contains enough B12 vitamins to carry you through the day. Per kilogram, crickets contain as much protein as pork. The University of Oxford published a very compelling study on the nutritional value of crickets versus meat products. When measuring protein content, vitamins, sugar and fat, crickets ended up ahead in most categories. While some studies may have pointed out some of the limitations around cricket consumption, scientific consensus is building.

Market-wise, Loblaw is testing consumers’ current curiosity and willingness to explore new dietary options. But it is bold to put a picture of a cricket on the same package as its prized President’s Choice brand logo.

Part of the reasoning behind consuming crickets is that insects are better at converting feed to protein, compared to larger livestock. Because crickets can reproduce very quickly and take up very little space, it is an incredibly efficient crop. Currency for crickets is rising, on both sides of the supplydemand continuum.

This shift also speaks to how our relationship with food is changing in general.

Aesthetics, flavour, price and convenience remain the major factors in choosing the food we eat. But the nutritional content of every single ingredient in our foods is gaining more attention. From our western perspective, crickets do not look appetizing, but neither did lobster at one time.

At the core of it all, Loblaw’s primary motivation for doing this is likely to put into practice the concept of whether some efficiencies can be enhanced by managing protein differently across global protein supply chains.

Loblaw is also hedging against the questionable future of animal protein. Many have probed current livestock practices and have registered concerns around the environmental footprint, ethics and health value of meat.

If crickets, or other insects, are to become part of our dietary way of life in Canada, it would probably be as a potent supplementary ingredient, not necessarily as a raw comestible food product. It is highly unlikely that steaks, chicken wings or pork chops will be replaced by a plateful of crickets any time soon, but ingredients sourced from the start of the food chain are starting to take their place in the retail market.

There are no short answers to economically relevant production models in food anymore. But with sound research, we are slowly accepting the fact that protein intake can come in several forms.

Sylvain Charlebois is professor in food distribution and policy, and dean of the faculty of management, at Dalhousie University