How food products made from insects can take off in Singapore

The crickets feed on vegetables and orange rinds at a Future Protein Solutions farm. (Photo: Toh Ee Ming)

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The insect protein market is anticipated to grow from an estimated US$602.3 million value to US$3.1 billion by 2033 — a trend that has also been encouraged by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization in recent years.

Last October, the Singapore Food Agency announced that it is reviewing the import and sale of insects and insect products for human consumption. 16 insect species have been reviewed, including some types of crickets, grasshoppers, beetles, mealworms, moths, silkworms and honeybees. More than 10 companies have expressed interest in importing insect food products or insect food farming, said the SFA.

Crickets, in particular, have emerged as a hot favourite, for a number of reasons.

Compared to farming conventional protein sources like poultry and cattle, crickets require less land, water and feed, and they also produce minimal amounts of greenhouse gases, making them eco-friendly and sustainable to rear. Crickets also have a high nutritional value comprising protein, vitamins, minerals, and fibre — making them a sustainable and affordable superfood.

Related: Grasshoppers in nasi lemak? Venture capitalist Eugene Wong also enjoys them with wine

Getting into insect farming

Products made from cricket powder by Asia Insect Farm Solutions. (Photo: Asia Insect Farm Solutions)

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From as early as 2017, Asia Insect Farm Solutions co-founder Yuvanesh Tamil Selvan was already eyeing a slice of the pie.

He and his partners poured a six- figure investment sum into building a 3,000-square-foot cricket farm in Malaysia. It produces two tonnes of crickets every month, which are converted into cricket powder.

But being so early in the game meant grappling with a huge gap in the market, says Yuvanesh. Regulations around how to run an insect farm were scant and operational hurdles made it hard to scale up. Feeding the crickets was a costly affair. They had to feed them a customised diet that was optimised for raising the protein profile of crickets. Commercially farmed crickets can be maximised to reach a protein profile of 70 percent per bug, as compared to 40 to 50 percent in wild crickets.

Facing uncertainty over getting approval to sell insect food products in Singapore, he closed the farm and switched to importing cricket flour from a partner farm in Thailand, and focused on R&D, product development, and creating partnerships.

A key question Yuvanesh faced: Were consumers interested in trying cricket- based food products?

Younger people in the 16 to 40-year-old age range showed the “most positive reception” as they are more open to trying novel foods as they are more likely to champion causes like sustainability and healthy living, he shares.

Once the green light is given, he plans to launch a range of snacks on various e-commerce sites and retailers, while banking on social media to appeal to his target audience.

Think cricket tortilla chips flavoured with paprika, rosemary and salt tomato and oregano at a mid-to-high price point because of its “healthier profile and high quality of ingredients,” he says.

The firm also plans to offer cookies and has had exploratory conversations to collaborate with restaurants and cafes to incorporate other products. They have created snacks such as cricket-based ondeh ondeh and goreng pisang for past events.

Insect farming can also help Singapore reduce reliance on traditional protein imports and is also space-efficient, adds Yuvanesh. His eventual goal is to create a circular economy and upcycle food waste for insects to feed.

“Once insect products are legalised, we expect to see a spike in the number of people who are curious to try them and more healthy competition from other companies. But our goal is to create something more sustainable,” he says.

Pent-up demand for food products made from insects

John Lee (left) and Gavriel Tan, co-founders of Altimate Nutrition. (Photo: Altimate Nutrition)

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Another player in the scene, Altimate Nutrition is seeing a healthy pent-up demand, says founder Gavriel Tan. The Republic Polytechnic biotech graduate and his co-founder, John Lee, first chanced upon a book by the United Nations titled “Edible Insects: Future Prospects for Food and Security”. The text piqued their unorthodox idea to create protein bars made out of cricket- based flour. They were awarded a $10,000 prototype grant to kickstart their business venture.

Its protein bars — which come in flavours including peanut butter cinnamon and matcha — are made with cricket powder from Thailand and are designed for people with active lifestyles. Over the past year, they have received a few thousand pre-orders from local customers via their website, comprising the Gen Z crowd and people aged 20 to 30 years old.
Once insect products are legalised, we expect to see a spike in the number of people who are curious to try them and more healthy competition from other companies.

Altimate Nutrition’s protein bars, which are made with cricket flour. (Photo: Altimate Nutrition)

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“The typical reaction is that people are sceptical at first, but once they try our products, they’re surprised to find that it tastes all right,” says Tan.

He recalls that it took a lot of experimentation with ingredients and techniques to create products with the best texture, taste and nutrition profile at Republic Polytechnic’s food labs and incubator spaces.

To have greater control of the supply chain, Altimate Nutrition has started tinkering with breeding its own crickets. By March, they also plan to export their products to the UK and Europe, where regulations are more established, and to raise funds for the expansion.

Cricket crusted Barramundi. (Photo: Future Protein Solution / LinkedIn)

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Currently, the insect farming industry in countries like Thailand and Vietnam still relies heavily on manual processes, says Future Protein Solution’s Leow. But Singapore could become an agri-tech leader in the insect farming space and a “gatekeeper of standards,” he predicts. Areas of focus that will drive the local growth include devising the most renewable and energy-efficient farming and manufacturing processes and franchising the business model.

His farm has been designed to be compliant with Good Manufacturing Process standards that assure a high level of food safety.

Future Protein Solutions is working with the National University of Singapore to redesign the farming workflow and process, and with Republic Polytechnic for product development of new food products and making organic liquid fertiliser from cricket frass. Also in the pipeline are plans to produce pasta noodles made from cricket flour.

Still, only time will tell if food made from insects will take off here. Leow says: “Even though it appears to be trending, cricket protein is still quite expensive and hence still a very niche product. We aim to make it more accessible by lowering the cost of production with the help of technology and creating products that can replace existing ingredients.”