19 December 2019
Launching a world first, Finland’s Fazer uses house crickets to enrich its bread.
Muriel Cozier
With bread being the most basic of foods, there is ongoing research to improve its nutritional content. One to increase the protein content is to incorporate insects, which is what family owned Finland-based international company Fazer Bakery has done.
During 2017 the company made headlines when it said that it was the first in the world to introduce insect bread to grocery stores. Until early November 2017 Finland had banned the selling of insects as food. But having spent time doing research and product development, the company was ready to launch its insect-based bread as soon as the ban was lifted.
Each loaf of Fazer Sirkkaleipä (Fazer Cricket Bread) contains 70 house crickets. ‘The whole cricket is ground to a fine powder and added to the flour. The bread contains more protein than normal bread,’ said Markus Hellström, Managing Director of Fazer Bakery Finland. Fazer added that the insect powder added nutritional benefits including fatty acids, calcium, iron and vitamin B12.
As the product launched, Fazer reported that that there was not enough cricket flour available for nationwide sales, so the new bread was introduced to the market in stages.
During 2018 Fazer’s Cricket Bread won recognition for its creativity when it awarded a Bronze Lion at the annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity under the Responsible Consumption and Production category.
Juhani Sibakov, Director Innovation of Fazer Bakery said ‘Everything points in the direction that, in the future, insects will be an important ingredient in food in the Western world.’