MUJI leading new Japan food trend with insects snacks

Insect eating, or entomophagy, may not sound too attractive, especially to those who avoid any contact with insects in their daily lives. Even those who spent their childhood chasing grasshoppers or other insects may feel uncomfortable about treating them as food. However, according to estimates, over 2 billion people all over the world eat insects as part of their diet today. And a Japanese company is taking a new step towards providing insects for a healthy and nutritious diet in Japan.

Ryohin Keikaku, or more commonly known as MUJI, is a Japanese retail company that sells all sorts of daily necessities from furniture to clothing, stationery and food. Their shops are popular among many in and out of Japan. On May 20, MUJI released a new snack called ‘Koorogi Senbei’ meaning ‘Cricket Crackers.’

This new snack was brought to life by collaborating with Tokushima University. The crackers are made with crickets specially grown to be used for food. There are several species of crickets, and MUJI chose black field crickets (gryllus bimaculatus) to make the snack. According to Watanabe Takahito, an assistant professor at Tokushima University, black field crickets are suitable for food use. The crackers don’t look like insects at all, in fact they are ground into powder, thus the appearance gives no reason to hesitate eating.

Impacts from switching to insect food

Today, edible insects such as crickets are attracting attention in many countries all over the world for their stunning advantages. First, for their high nutrition. According to the FAO, insects contain high quality protein, vitamins and amino acids that are essential nutrients for human health.

Second, crickets take up very little space to raise compared to other livestock, but require less water and food, hence environmental and sustainable. To produce 1 kg of protein, crickets need 1.7 kg of food and 4 liters of water, whereas cows require 10 kg of food and 22,000 liters of water. This shows crickets have high food conversion rate, and the cost is a lot cheaper to raise.

Furthermore, crickets can be fed with organic waste, which would contribute to the reduction of food waste. Last but not least, crickets have less negative impact on the environment in another aspect too. The amount of greenhouse gas crickets emit is as low as 0.1 kg, compared to cows emit 2.8 kg.

Tackling the Earth’s population growth and growing food problem

The world population is projected to grow from 7.7 billion at present to 9.1-9.7 billion by 2050. 2 more billion people to feed in 30 years’ time is a knotty problem to tackle; research shows that overall food production needs to be raised by more than 70 percent. The need is obvious for an innovative change in the production of food or the food consumption pattern, or even both. So there seems to be no impediment to stop the spread of cricket farming around the world, and entomophagy to become the next food trend.

Cricket Crackers may already become a food trend in Japan this year; the product is already out of stock at present. It is expected to be back in MUJI’s online shop by July.