Megan Miller, founder of San Francisco-based Bitty Foods , aims to make bugs more mainstream and her company recently launched a line that includes cookies and a baking mix infused with cricket powder. After hearing Miller speak at the recent TEDxManhattan and sampling a couple of her cricket cookies (yum!), we had to know more. To learn about Bitty Foods, their cricket milling processes, and why you should be a cricket consumer, read on.

It seems like every couple months there's a story in the news about insect eating. Just recently, Epicurious reported on the benefits of bug consumption after attending a preview of the Explorers Club's Annual Creepy Crawly Dinner . And yet despite all the headlines, munching on flies and their friends remains on the fringe, at least in the U.S.



Epicurious: What inspired you to found Bitty Foods and to start milling cricket flour?

Megan Miller: My interest in edible insects started with travel--I first encountered insect-based cuisine while backpacking in Thailand and Mexico. I later learned of the environmental benefits of insect protein, and realized that it would be a fascinating challenge to help introduce insects into the Western diet.

Bitty Foods is all about transforming perceptions of edible insects and healthy eating by making crickets as delicious and "un-buggy" as possible. To do this, we dry roast the crickets and mill them into a powder, which is used as a key ingredient in familiar, tasty foods. Our first products are cookies and baking flour, but we plan to launch a whole range of cricket-flour based foods. We see a future where the nutrition content of many of our everyday foods could be enhanced with high-quality insect protein.

Epi: Can you explain the process involved in making cricket powder and also what other ingredients are in your baking mix?

MM: We get our crickets from a farm that specializes in raising insects for human consumption based on a certified organic, non-GMO diet. We sterilize them, dry roast them and then mill them into a fine powder. Our baking mix combines cricket powder and other gluten- and grain-free ingredients, like tapioca and almond meal, blended in the right ratios for making cookies, muffins, pancakes...you name it.



Epi: What are some of the health benefits of eating your products?

MM: Cricket flour is gluten free and high in protein (nearly 70 grams per cup--about the same as beef) and healthy fats. It also contains important trace minerals like iron and magnesium.

Epi: How can eating insects address global food insecurity?

MM: As the world population grows to 9 billion+ people over the next few decades, food production will be stretched to its limits and food costs will rise. Meat will be much more expensive and scarce than it is today and most people will likely eat a predominantly vegetarian diet. It will be important to find high quality protein sources to supplement this diet and insects are an extremely efficient source of protein that can be grown in both urban and rural environments.

Epi: Why are crickets such an efficient source of protein?

MM: Crickets grow from egg to adult in just 6 weeks, and each female lays around 15,000 eggs in her lifetime, so it's possible to grow a large population of insects quickly. They grow faster and require less land and water than soy. And they use feed very efficiently. If you feed crickets 10 pounds of feed, they will produce 1 pound of waste and 9 pounds of edible cricket protein. By contrast, it takes 10 pounds of feed to get one pound of beef--the other nine are converted to waste.



Epi: What does cricket flour taste like?

MM: We dry-roast our crickets before milling them, so the flour has a nice toasty, nutty, slightly earthy flavor. Kind of like hazelnuts and buckwheat mixed together.

Epi: What are some of the best ways to use cricket flour?

MM: We're developing lots of new foods that incorporate cricket flour. It gives a high-protein boost to just about any food that normally includes grain-based flour. We think the earthy flavor pairs nicely with bright citrus and spice flavors.

Epi: Where do you sell your cookies and baking mix?

MM: We just started selling Bitty products this month at Bittyfoods.com, and we've got a lot of interest from natural foods retailers, especially in progressive cities like San Francisco, L.A., Austin and New York. So hopefully we'll be "in a store near you" soon!