Bug burgers, food for thought - 25th November 2022

How do you fancy a bug burger? Whilst this might not sound too appetising there's no doubt that insects are a valuable source of protein and are set to become a billion dollar industry.

At this pop up restaurant Bounce Burger in Bangkok, Thailand they specialise in cricket burgers. They also serve cricket sausages, cricket balls and even power bars and cookies made from the jumping bugs. To explain the secret of making the crickets more consumer friendly, here's the owner of Bounce Burger, Poopipat Thiapairat.

Poopipat Thiapairat: "The problem with crickets is that they get stuck in your throat. The chitin parts of the crickets like legs and wings make them hard to swallow so we came to the idea that we should take off these parts and use only the body of the crickets. It's the same concept as beef or pork where we don't eat the bones."

Traditionally crickets were served whole, grilled on a skewer with soy sauce. Does this new way of preparing the bouncy bugs really help their appeal?

Anut Sotthibandhu: "The taste is good. The sauce blends over the smell of the crickets so I don't feel like there are crickets in my burger."

The environmental impact of farming crickets is also significantly lower than rearing cows or pigs. As the world wakes up to the potential of farming insects, Thailand already has thousands of insect farms and is now focussing them on producing bugs for human consumption.

Bounce Burger's working with The Bricket, an innovative, vertical cricket farm. Thanaphum Muang-ieam's the Managing Director.

Thanaphum Muang-ieam: "In our R&D farm, so then we we produce 40 40 kilograms (of crickets) a weeks so that is 160 kilograms yeah a month - It's a R&D scale. And then all of them, we send to our restaurant, Bounce burger, yeah, to be processed in many menus."

Ick factor aside, bug farming could be a solution to a very serious problem which is to provide food and particularly good quality protein in an environmentally friendly way for both rich and poor countries.

Something to chew over when you munch your next bug burger.