Cricket snacks for sale at a convenience store in Japan

A new snack with edible cricket powder available soon at FAmilyMart Co. convenience stores in Tokushima prefecture.

The startup company Gryllus Inc, created “C. Tria Corn Snacks”, a new product containing this powder. At the moment the firm is pre-selling it in all its convenience stores in the prefecture.

The company has been working to breed, process and market crickets that are edible.

The line of stores and geographical areas where this snack is available will be expanded little by little in the coming months, according to company reports.

The new product contains ground crickets that were raised in Japan. This powder is very aromatic and has a crunchy texture. There are two flavors: “uma-shio” (umami-flavored salt) and “takoyaki” (octopus balls).

Both options cost 98 yen (68 cents), including tax, per 10-gram bag.

The C. Tria Cookie (large)” and the “C. Tria Protein Bar”, which have already been put on the market on a limited basis in the Greater Tokyo Area and in Hokkaido, were also launched for sale at outlets in Tokushima Prefecture.

And to commemorate the new product, Gryllus set up a food truck at the FamilyMart on Sept. 21 to sell chips containing cricket powder.

“I didn’t get discouraged when I ate (the chips) because (the cricket powder) tastes a lot like spices,” said an office worker in his 40s, who bought the snack at the store and also ate the chips. . “The more powder you sprinkle, the better they taste.”

“We are very happy, as officials of a company based in Tokushima prefecture, to market our products in all areas of the prefecture, whereas before we used to market our products mainly only online,” said a Gryllus representative.

Even the airline Ziair Tokyo Inc., which flies domestically, began accepting reservations on July 1 for its new inflight specialties that include crickets, which are a rich source of protein and other nutrients.

One of the meals on offer includes a chili burger topped with tomato, while another is seafood pasta.

To prepare these dishes, two-spot crickets are ground into gryllus powder, which is then mixed into tomato sauce or onto a burger and bun. The crickets give dishes ” an appetizing flavor similar to that of crustacean shells, ” according to officials in Zipair’s planning and marketing department.

These cricket-based products seek to produce a sustainable source of food in Japan.

This trend, which was originally aimed at marketing an “exotic dish”, has continued to be pushed forward as the environmental costs for farming insects are lower compared to farming animals.

And it is that insects can replace beef, pork and other types of meat. This comes in handy given that animal meat is expected to be scarce in the future due to the growth of the world population.

The main advantage of growing insects for food is that the impact on the environment is less. Insects can be farmed efficiently using much less food, water, and energy than raising animals such as cattle and pigs.

The company warns people with shellfish allergies not to eat its products because cricket powder contains ingredients that resemble those found in crustaceans.