Bread Company Unveils New Ingredient: Crickets

One of Finland's largest food companies is selling what it claims to be a first: insect bread. Markus Hellstrom, head of the Fazer group's bakery division, said that one loaf contains about 70 dried house crickets, ground into powder and added to the flour. The farm-raised crickets represent 3% of the bread's weight, per the AP. The first batch of cricket breads went on sale in major Finnish cities Friday, and the company aims to have the bread available in 47 bakeries in Finland in a subsequent round of sales.

"Mankind needs new and sustainable sources of nutrition," said Juhani Sibakov, head of Fazer Bakery Finland's innovation department. The company is taking advantage of new Finnish legislation that allows the sale of insects as food. In Switzerland, supermarket chain Coop began selling burgers and meatballs made from insects in September. Insects can also be found on supermarket shelves in Belgium, Britain, Denmark, and the Netherlands.

(More insects stories.)