- Title: Belgian start-up offers crunchy crickets as alternative to meat
- Date: 20th June 2017
- Summary: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (JUNE 15, 2017) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF LIVE CRICKETS VARIOUS OF CRICKET FARM YOUNG CRICKETS MOVING AROUND VARIOUS OF STAFF MEMBER OF 'LITTLE FOOD' IN CHARGE OF BREEDING CRICKETS, NIKOLAAS VIAENE, RE-ARRANGING ITEMS IN CRICKET BOX (SOUNDBITE) (English) STAFF MEMBER OF 'LITTLE FOOD' IN CHARGE OF BREEDING CRICKETS, NIKOLAAS VIAENE, SAYING: "For the same amount of protein as a cow for instance, they need 25 times less food, they need 300 times less water, and they produce 60 times less greenhouse gases. So that's why they are called an alternative for animal proteins." VIAENE SHOWING CRICKETS, EXPLAINING HOW THEY MAKE THE NOISE VIAENE CHECKING THE CRICKET COMPARTMENTS CRICKETS MOVING AROUND (SOUNDBITE) (English) STAFF MEMBER OF 'LITTLE FOOD' IN CHARGE OF BREEDING CRICKETS, NIKOLAAS VIAENE, SAYING: "We will breed 12 million crickets a month. That means that every Belgian can eat each month one cricket, and a few can take two. So it's far from taking over meat yet, it's the very beginning of this market, but we believe that it can be an alternative that once in a day you eat crickets, or you have a veggie day and an insect day, why not?" CRICKETS CRICKET FARM BABY CRICKETS VIAENE POURING A BUCKET OF DEAD CRICKETS OUT INTO A TRAY VARIOUS OF VIAENE POURING A SMALL BUCKET OF DEAD CRICKETS ONTO TRAY AND SPREADING THEM OUT BY HAND VIAENE PUTTING TRAY INTO OVEN TO DRY THEM (SOUNDBITE) (English) STAFF MEMBER OF 'LITTLE FOOD' IN CHARGE OF BREEDING CRICKETS, NIKOLAAS VIAENE, SAYING: "It's new for most people, also for us. The first cricket you eat, it's a bit scary, but it's also the fun. It's fun to eat it. If you eat crickets, you have a conversation, that's for sure." BAGS OF CRICKET PRODUCTS BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (JUNE 16, 2017) (REUTERS) SUPERMARKET "Farm" WHERE 'LITTLE FOOD' PRODUCTS ARE SOLD SHELVES SHOWING DRIED CRICKET TUBES FOR SALE DRIED CRICKET TUBES PRICED 4.50, 4.90, 4.95 AND 4.99 EUROS (SOUNDBITE) (French) BRUSSELS RESIDENT, ILARIA CANITA, TASTING A CRICKET, SAYING: "I can't see its head. (TASTING CRICKET) Oh it's really good... Can I take the whole thing? It tastes like shrimp, I knew that, someone had told me. It's good, you just have to not look at its head! (LAUGHS)." (SOUNDBITE) (French) BRUSSELS RESIDENT, JULIANA TARTARELLI, SAYING: "Well there you go, when I first heard about grilled insects and all that, that we can eat them, I was disgusted, I was always a bit scandalised, no never would I have tried that. And today I tried, my first time you know, and I found it fine, you see, sometimes we have ideas that aren't right." (SOUNDBITE) (French) BRUSSELS RESIDENT, EFTHIMIA LELECAS, SAYING: "No, no, I'm not eating that, no, no, it's disgusting, really I can't, no, no... no." (SOUNDBITE) (French) BRUSSELS RESIDENT SIMON BLANQUIER TASTING CRICKETS, SAYING: "It's good, it disgusts me a bit but it's good." VARIOUS OF PEOPLE NEAR FOUNTAIN
- Embargoed: 4th July 2017 15:46
- Keywords: Crickets Brussels food innovative alternative insects disgusting production
- Location: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
- City: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
- Country: Belgium
- Topics: Living / Lifestyle,Human Interest / Brights / Odd News,Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA0016M321QX
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:A Belgian start-up hopes crickets will soon be a common item on people's dinner plates, as an alternative to meat as well as a solution to increasing food shortages for rising world populations and to combat climate change.
Little Food, which breeds and transforms crickets for human consumption, has expanded from a private flat where they began farming crickets to a new three floor building in the north of Brussels.
The company hopes the move will allow them to increase production levels from 700 to 800 kilograms to up to three tonnes per month, allowing them to process 12 million crickets per month.
The crickets can be eaten dried in different flavours, or turned into flour and incorporated into new recipes, an area Little Food hopes to expand on.
If people can be convinced to eat the insects, the environmental benefits could be substantial, Nikolaas Viaene, who breeds the crickets for Little Food, told Reuters Television.
"For the same amount of protein as a cow for instance, they need 25 times less food, they need 300 times less water, and they produce 60 times less greenhouse gases. So that's why they are called an alternative for animal proteins," he said.
On the streets of Brussels, people who were willing to taste a flavoured cricket said they were pleasantly surprised by the crunchy insects' flavour.
"Well there you go, when I first heard about grilled insects and all that, that we can eat them, I was disgusted, I was always a bit scandalised," said Brussels-resident Juliana Tartarelli, who continued to nibble on crickets after trying her first one.
Little Food is far from the only company in the world to encourage eating insects, with others in the U.S., Britain, the Netherlands, or Sweden seizing on the new market.
The company said they had orders for hundreds of kilos from other countries which they could not yet fulfil but were hopeful this could change in the future when production in their new farm is at full steam. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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