Protein transition

Insects to feed the world

Cricket farming is a proven technology, already done for decennia in Asia and the Netherlands. We adjusted the approach to the African context, transferred knowledge and trained local trainers and entrepreneurs. With partners we set up an inclusive value chain on crickets in Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria, including 250 farmers and food processors.

Crickets are successfully launched to end-consumers as cricket powder - as nutritious additive to porridge, bread and cookies. TNO is founder of the Flying Food consortium since 2013 and we still work together on further scaling of this innovative solution.

Why crickets?

Advantages of crickets are:

• Crickets are tasty, affordable and very nutritious. They taste a bit nutty and they have a high protein content (65% of dry weight); twice as much as beef! Crickets contain all 9 essential amino acids and are a rich source of iron and calcium.
• Legislation to eat crickets is present. In 2021 the EU accepted crickets as novel food and Kenyan and Ugandan Bureau of Standards since 2023;
• Cricket farming is a climate friendly alternative for conventional cattle, pig or chicken farming. A cow consumes 400 kg of feed, 10.000 liter water and has high emission of greenhouse gasses, where for 1 kg of crickets just 2 kg of feed and few liters of water is required without very limited emissions.
• Crickets are easy to rear and provide a sound business case which creates jobs and income, especially for youth and women; because cricket farming is not labor intensive and requires low-investment costs.

Ambition for scaling and impact

Ambition is to scale Flying Food to 5 medium-sized cricket farms in Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria and to scale to new African countries. This way we create 15.000 jobs, especially for women and youth, reduce malnutrition by providing 2.000.000 servings annually and reduce the carbon footprint by boosting this climate smart protein source.