The surprising cricket bread that could soon hit supermarket shelves

Researchers in Argentina have turned the Jamaican field cricket (Gryllus assimilis) into finely milled flour with a robust nutrient profile and workable processing steps adding new data to the growing case for insects as sustainable food ingredients. The team reports repeatable production, a refined way to count protein more accurately, and early kitchen tests suggesting the flour can slot into familiar foods.

Insects raise quickly, need less land and water than livestock, and can help close loops in food systems, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s landmark assessment of edible insects. Yet adoption hinges on safety, nutrition, and practical use in real foods. This paper speaks to all three, with species-specific numbers for G. assimilis a cricket increasingly farmed in Latin America.

How the team made and measured it

Crickets reared under standard conditions were scalded, oven-dried at 130 degrees Celsius for one hour, then ground. The process yielded about 28% flour by mass from fresh insects and produced a very dry, shelf-stable powder (water activity around 0.185). Researchers then mapped composition (protein, fat, fiber, ash, residual carbohydrate), amino acids, minerals, and fatty acids, and probed “techno-functional” traits such as water-holding and oil absorption. They also partially defatted the flour with food-grade solvents to see how lipid removal affects performance.

What they found

Protein, counted carefully. Using amino acid accounting and a species-specific nitrogen-to-protein conversion factor, the authors estimate G. assimilis flour contains about 56.4% protein, with an in vitro protein digestibility of 67.4%. That adjusted figure avoids overstating protein by counting non-protein nitrogen from chitin in the exoskeleton, a known pitfall in insect nutrition studies.

Fat made up roughly one-quarter of the flour, dominated by linoleic (about 34.7%), oleic (27.7%), and palmitic (25.9%) acids. Classic lipid indices landed in favorable ranges: atherogenic index about 0.43, thrombogenic index about 0.93, and a hypocholesterolemic/hypercholesterolemic ratio near 2.38. The omega-6 to omega-3 ratio was high (around 40 to 1), and the flour’s unsaturated fat content means oxidation management will matter during storage.

Fiber and low-digestible carbs

Total dietary fiber was about 8.3%, with very low available (digestible) carbohydrates, reflecting the contribution of chitin an insoluble fiber in insect cuticle.

A 25-gram serving contributed roughly one-third of daily needs for phosphorus and zinc (up to about 48%), almost one-half for copper, and about one-third for molybdenum; iron contributions varied by sex-specific recommendations (about 10–22%). Lead was detected at low levels and, per the authors, below relevant limits; arsenic and cadmium were not detected.

One-step defatting pulled out 37–55% of lipids depending on solvent and subtly improved some lipid-quality indices in the remaining flour. Oil absorption rose across the board useful for flavor retention and mouthfeel while water-holding capacity shifted with the degree of defatting. Color differences were noticeable when petroleum ether or hexane was used, less so with ethanol.

Early food applications

Beyond lab metrics, the group is exploring how the flour behaves in everyday foods. In a university update, project lead Carlos Gabriel Arp said a bread prototype with 15% cricket flour showed “strong potential” to raise the nutritional value of white bread; the pilot loaf had acceptable texture and flavor, similar to whole-wheat bread in look and feel.

Those results were qualitative and early, but they hint at a path to consumer-friendly formats.

Context and scale

Europe’s food-safety authority has already judged the closely related house cricket (Acheta domesticus) safe under proposed uses as a novel food, while noting potential cross-reactivity for people allergic to crustaceans and dust mites. Current European Union authorizations cover a small set of species (including the house cricket, mealworms, and migratory locust), not Gryllus assimilis specifically.

That underscores why species-level nutrition and safety data, like those in this study matter for regulators and manufacturers planning product pipelines.

Caution and next steps

Most results here are from in vitro or compositional analyses, not clinical trials. The high unsaturated-fat content calls for attention to antioxidants and storage, and the high omega-6 to omega-3 ratio is worth factoring into product design.

Allergen labeling will be essential if products reach the market, as advised in European risk assessments for other cricket species. Finally, consumer acceptance and country-by-country regulatory approvals remain practical gates to clear.

The study is published in the International Journal of Food Science and Technology.

References

• Toribio E, Correa MJ, Medici SK, Ferrero C, Arp CG. Characterising cricket flour from Gryllus assimilis: an alternative source of nutrients for sustainability. Int J Food Sci Technol. 2024;59(10):7509–7516.

• van Huis A et al. Edible insects: future prospects for food and feed security. FAO Forestry Paper 171. FAO/Netherlands; 2013.

• Turck D et al. Safety of frozen and dried formulations from whole house crickets as a novel food. EFSA J. 2021;19:e06779.

• Rumpold BA, Schlüter OK. Nutritional composition and safety aspects of edible insects. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2013;57:802–823.

• Oria M, Harrison M, Stallings VA. Dietary Reference Intakes for Sodium and Potassium. National Academies Press; 2019.