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Once upon a time, tasting exotic foods like caviar (fish eggs) or foie gras (goose liver) was met with a grimace. Nowadays, these items are not only celebrated, they have been elevated to delicacy status. Although in various parts of the world, most commonly in Southeast Asia and South America, insects and bugs are popular local street foods, or just regular old snacks, mainstream Western acceptance has yet to take hold of the masses. Chirps, a new company boasting bugs as its main ingredient, is poised to change all that. Chirps are chips crafted from cricket flour. Yup - crickets. As in the bug that makes that soothing sound at dusk.
One might say it's a quirky gimmick, but Chirps actually puts its money where its mouth is - and the benefits are twofold: the chips, available in BBQ, cheddar, and sea salt flavors, are packed with 20 grams of protein per bag (three times the amount of protein and 40% less fat than regular potato chips), and are also sustainable to make. It takes one gallon of water to produce one pound of crickets - comparatively it takes 2,000 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef. Plus insects produce about 100 times fewer greenhouse gas emissions than cows.
The tasty snacks were launched last year to much fanfare, and now the chips are available on Amazon and in Whole Foods Market. In a funny twist, Disney World signed up to stock Chirps in their cafeterias following the launch. We guess Jiminy Cricket just may have some competition!
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