Bug burgers, food for thought - 25th November 2022

A bug burger isn't to everyone's taste. However, insects are a good source of healthy protein and are about to become a billion dollar business.

One restaurant in Thailand, Bounce Burger, serves burgers, sausages, cookies and power bars all made from crickets. The manager's trying to make crickets attractive to customers. He explains that they take off the legs and wings and only use the body of the insects.

It's like removing bones from meat, says 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."

Crickets are traditionally grilled whole with soy sauce. But will a burger seem more tasty? For Anut Sotthibandhu, the burgers taste much better.

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."

Insect burgers are an eco-friendly option as cricket farms don't require much land or water. However, farming of cows and pigs pollutes the environment and requires lots of water and land. Thailand's already started growing crickets for food on thousands of cricket farms.

Thanaphum Muang-ieum runs The Bricket, a cricket research and development farm.

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."

Consumers may have to change their minds about insects as food. Insect farms are eco-friendly and have the ability to produce healthy food for poor and rich countries. Globally, consumers will have to think about the benefits that insect farming can bring to their plates.