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| Picture of a Sens food bar, from the Sens Foods Kickstarter page |
This week, I learned about a food bar that its makers are producing, not as a complete food source. but as a sustainable one whose supply can easily be renewed, and a healthy, guilt-free, meat-like source of protein for vegans. The source--crickets!
Apparently when they are ground up into a flour-like substance and baked into food bars, crickets make for great high-energy bars and protein bars, according to SENS Foods, the Czech company that makes them. The Kickstarter for the product can be seen here. The company will sell two varieties of protein bar (at least 20g of protein in each) and two varieties of energy bar, in appealing flavors (like dark chocolate and orange). Though the Kickstarter has 11 days to go, it has already made the necessary number of pledges, so it appears as though the Sens bars will become a reality.
I am very curious about the taste of Sens bars, but am not presently in a financial position to support the Kickstarter. Nonetheless, the Sens project has given me food for thought. Most food sources devised to address the issue of feeding large numbers of people sustainably (soy, vegemite) do not produce food I would be happy to eat on a long-term basis. But so long as I don't have to crunch tiny legs and thoraxes, cricket protein is something I'd be willing to try. I may be in a minority on this issue; my husband rejected the idea of cricket-based food before I'd even finished describing Sens Foods' product. It will be interesting to see whether Sens Foods' product achieves broad acceptance, or becomes yet another footnote in the wider history of food.
EDIT: (9/7/2016) Perhaps Sens Foods is slightly behind the curve. Amazon.com (and probably other places as well) sells cricket flour, so inspired consumers can make their own experiments. See this page of search results.
Apparently when they are ground up into a flour-like substance and baked into food bars, crickets make for great high-energy bars and protein bars, according to SENS Foods, the Czech company that makes them. The Kickstarter for the product can be seen here. The company will sell two varieties of protein bar (at least 20g of protein in each) and two varieties of energy bar, in appealing flavors (like dark chocolate and orange). Though the Kickstarter has 11 days to go, it has already made the necessary number of pledges, so it appears as though the Sens bars will become a reality.
I am very curious about the taste of Sens bars, but am not presently in a financial position to support the Kickstarter. Nonetheless, the Sens project has given me food for thought. Most food sources devised to address the issue of feeding large numbers of people sustainably (soy, vegemite) do not produce food I would be happy to eat on a long-term basis. But so long as I don't have to crunch tiny legs and thoraxes, cricket protein is something I'd be willing to try. I may be in a minority on this issue; my husband rejected the idea of cricket-based food before I'd even finished describing Sens Foods' product. It will be interesting to see whether Sens Foods' product achieves broad acceptance, or becomes yet another footnote in the wider history of food.
EDIT: (9/7/2016) Perhaps Sens Foods is slightly behind the curve. Amazon.com (and probably other places as well) sells cricket flour, so inspired consumers can make their own experiments. See this page of search results.
A couple of years ago at Penguicon (don't remember exactly which year), there was a panel about insects as food, and they passed out samples of cricket-meal-based protein bars. Did you get to that? If so, did you sample them?
ReplyDeleteNo, I didn't see that panel, John; if I had, I probably would have mentioned it in the post.
ReplyDelete