Insect eating: The ultimate guide to eating crickets

When you hear about eating insects most people gross out. However, insects are concidered a delicacy in many parts of the world.
Most of the insects eaten are farm grown. In some places, they don't shy away from eating insects collected from the wild.

Eating insects is concidered:

Healthy: Since insects have less fat content.
Enviromentally friendly: It takes less amount of food/plants to rear insects compared to cows.
Subtitute: People who don't eat milk and meat products can try out insects as protein substitute.

Which insects do people eat

There are more than 2000 edible insects in the world according to Wageningen University & Research, Netherlands. The most commonly consumed insects are:

Insect	Consumption (%)
beetles	31%
caterpillars	18%
bees wasps and ants	14%
grasshoppers, locusts and crickets	13%
leafhoppers, cicadas, planthoppers & true bugs	10%
Termites	3%
Dragonflies	3%
Flies	2%
Others	Others: 6%

Which stage in the life cycle are insects consumed

Insects are consumed at different stages of their life cycles. Some of them are:

Insect	Stage consumed
Beetles	Adult or Larva
butterflies and Moths	Worms
Bees and wasps	Eggs, larvaes or pupaes
Ants	Larvae and pupae
Crickets, grasshoppers and locusts	Nymph or adult
Termite	Winged adults

Add an image of life cycle of insects

How are insects consumed(eaten)

Crickets have no distinctive flavour so they acquire the flavor of whatever they are mixed with. These insects are either:

Eaten whole. They are dry-roasted, baked, deep-fried or boiled.
Turned/ processed into flour, pasta, protein bars or energy bars. The most common insect used to make flour, protein bars and energy bars is crickets.

Interesting fact: Eating insects as food is called entomophagy.

I want to start eating insects where do I start?

Great! I like your enthusiasm. There are 3 ways you can consume insects:

As whole

You would need to find out if there is a local restaurant in your area offering bugs in their menu.

Eating insect is not yet mainstream so expect this as finding a needle in a haystack.

Protein bars

Since most people have never tasted cricket protein bars, companies offer a starter pack containing 4 flavours.
This is a risk free way to taste all the flavours before commiting to buying one flavour pack.

Cricket flour

If you love cooking, you can experiment with some cricket flour in your own recipes or try out other cricket recipes.

You can add the flour to your own recipes to add the nutritional value.

Sample Packs

Exo sample pack

Sensbar

Chapul sample pack

Naakbar sample pack

Other Products

Other Products	Flavours	View on Amazon	View on manufacturer website
Protein Powder Shake (1lb)	Chocolate	Dummy Link	Dummy Link
Protein Powder Shake (1lb)	Vanilla	Dummy Link	Dummy Link
Cricket Bars (sampler)	Vanilla	Dummy Link	Dummy Link
Cricket Protein Powder	Chocolate	Dummy Link	Dummy Link
Cricket Protein Powder	Vanilla	Dummy Link	Dummy Link