Fazer Cricket Bread. PICTURE: Supplied.
A Finnish bakery announced last week that it was producing what is believed to be the world’s first insect-based bread to be offered to consumers in stores.
The company, Fazer Bakery Finland, said the bread – named ‘Fazer Sirkkaleipä’ (‘Fazer Cricket Bread’) – was made from flour created using dried crickets as well as wheat flour and seeds. Each loaf is said to contain about 70 crickets.
Markus Hellström, managing director, said the company wanted to be in the “forefront of food revolution”.
“We want to boost growth in the bread category with hand-made artisanal bread, also in the future. In the Fazer in-store bakeries, we can easily bake and test different kinds of novelties. The first-in-the-world Fazer Cricket Bread is a great example of this.”
The move comes after Finland on 1st November became the latest European nation to allowed insects to be raised and marketed for food use.
While insects are already commonly eaten in some parts of the world, Juhani Sibakov, director of innovation at the company, said everything was pointing to the idea that insects will also be an important ingredient in food in the future in the Western world.
“Mankind needs new and sustainable sources of nutrition,” he said. “According to research, of all the Nordic countries, Finns have the most positive attitudes towards insects. We are looking forward to seeing how our novelty bread is received.”
With not enough of the cricket flour available for nationwide sales at this stage, the bread will be made available in stages.
