Crickets key in innovative bakery
Sharon Stephenson talks to a Kiwi who revolutionised his family’s near 80-year-old business with some tasty bread bugs.
It’s not often a missing TV remote is the catalyst for a new business, especially one that turns out to be an innovative ‘‘future food’’. But that’s what happened to John Cockburn, the third-generation owner of Masterton bakery Breadcraft.
Two years ago, Cockburn was watching television when a documentary about cricket farming came on.
‘‘I wasn’t terribly interested, but I couldn’t find the remote and couldn’t be bothered getting up to change the channel,’’ says Cockburn, whose grandfather Harold started Breadcraft in 1942.
It turned out to be a good decision and a light eventually went on: Cockburn discovered crickets are high in protein, low in carbs, contain vitamin B and omega 3 and 6, are good for gut health and have bioactive peptides that have been shown to help with diabetes and heart disease.
Cricket farming also ticks all the sustainability boxes, requiring a fraction of the land and water use of other proteins, such as red meat.
Surely, thought Cockburn, there must be a way to incorporate these powerful pockets of alternative nutrition into baked goods?
Not long after that, he was in Canada checking out biodegradable packaging when a detour to a cricket farm confirmed what he suspected, that flour made from crickets could be a high-protein win for those seeking healthier options in the bread aisle.
Meanwhile, across town, Masterton farmer/ technology consultant John Hart was investigating the use of crickets for a client’s protein-rich chicken feed. Hart found a local supplier of Kiwi black field crickets, usually considered a pest, and worked out their optimal breeding conditions.
‘‘But I soon realised they were far too valuable for chicken feed,’’ Hart says.
‘‘I thought they’d make a better food source for humans.’’
Hart was introduced to Cockburn and,
18 months ago, the pair started Rebel Bakehouse, a brand of cricket and hemp seed wraps now sold in supermarkets nationwide.
The crickets are farmed in two former shipping containers in Masterton, where the temperature and humidity are conducive to breeding the insects. Around two million are kept at any one time, in large bins stacked on top of one other.
‘‘They’re raised humanely and when the time comes to harvest them, they’re also killed humanely, using nitrogen gas, which puts them to sleep quickly,’’ says Hart.
The crickets are then dried and ground into flour, before making their way into the wraps.
‘‘We’ve developed these processes as we’ve gone along but, basically, it’s a self-sustaining system, where the crickets are fed surplus bread from the bakery, the water used is recycled, and we use very little electricity,’’ says Hart.
The product is also timely, tapping into a growing concern about climate change and a world where the population is getting bigger, but the planet isn’t.
‘‘There’s only so much available land and we need to find a better way to use it,’’ says Cockburn. ‘‘Compared to cows, which take up a lot of room, crickets can be grown vertically, which takes up a fraction of the space.’’
There’s also about 50kg of protein in a cow, but Hart estimates they can grow 50kg of (cricket) protein in a container in a month or so.
‘‘The crickets also produce less than 1 per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions of cows,’’ he says.
The pair’s cricket flour wraps – and their hemp seed equivalents, which use locally grown seeds that also pack a healthy, nutritious punch – were launched in March and, so far, have proven a hit with Kiwi consumers.
‘‘Something like two billion people around the world eat insects every day,’’ says Cockburn. ‘‘So what might seem weird to us is a regular part of their diet. Although some Kiwis aren’t keen to try the wraps, once they do they’re usually won over.’’
The next step for the entrepreneurial pair is to launch snack packs of whole crickets. They’re experimenting with flavours such as salt and vinegar, and chilli and lime. Other options include supplying nutrition bar manufacturers and smoothie makers with cricket flour, along with experimenting with ways to use it in bakery items. They’re also looking at incorporating other types of bugs.
‘‘The sky’s the limit,’’ says Cockburn.