The Catalyst — The FAO 2013 Report and the Western Insect Food Industry

What it is

The Western insect food industry is a young, technology-driven sector that emerged primarily after the publication of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's landmark 2013 report, Edible Insects: Future Prospects for Food and Feed Security. This report did not create entomophagy — it documented and validated a 2-billion-person practice that had existed continuously — but it catalyzed significant investment, entrepreneurial activity, regulatory engagement, and media coverage in Europe and North America that had been largely absent before.

The Report's Significance: The FAO 2013 report was authored by a team of entomologists, nutritionists, and food systems scientists and ran to 187 pages of detailed analysis covering the nutritional science of edible insects, the ecological case for insect farming, the existing traditions of insect consumption globally, the technical requirements for insect farming, the regulatory landscape, and the consumer behavior challenges of introducing insect foods to Western markets. Its conclusion was direct: insects represent a significant opportunity to address global protein demand with a fraction of the environmental footprint of conventional livestock, and the primary barrier to broader insect food adoption in Western markets was cultural, not scientific or logistical.

The report was widely covered in global media, and it provided a credibility foundation for entrepreneurs who had been working on insect food companies in isolation to attract investment, engage regulators, and pitch to food retailers. The years 2013–2018 saw a significant wave of insect food startups in Europe and North America, most focused on cricket flour, mealworm protein, or whole-insect snack products.

Key Companies in the Western Insect Food Industry:

Entomo Farms (Canada): Founded in 2014 in Norwood, Ontario, Entomo Farms is North America's largest cricket and mealworm farm. The founders transitioned from conventional livestock farming (they had a mink farm, which they converted) and brought agricultural operations expertise to what had been primarily a hobbyist and small-scale industry. Entomo Farms produces cricket powder, whole roasted crickets, and mealworm-based products for the consumer food market and ingredients market. Their adoption of existing agricultural infrastructure and food safety systems (HACCP, federally inspected facility) established standards for the North American industry.

Jimini's (France): Founded in 2012 in Paris, Jimini's is one of the oldest and most prominent European insect food brands, producing flavored whole insect snacks (grasshoppers, mealworms, crickets in multiple flavors), insect-based crackers, and protein bars. Jimini's product design addresses the consumer challenge directly: their whole-insect snacks are attractively packaged, flavored with familiar profiles (BBQ, paprika, Thai curry), and positioned as a snack food category rather than a novelty. The company has demonstrated that a retail consumer insect food business can be built in a European market.

Chapul (USA): Founded in 2012 in Salt Lake City, Utah, by Pat Crowley, Chapul was one of the first cricket-protein bars in the American market. The company's strategy was to embed cricket flour within a product format (protein bar) that was already familiar and trusted, without leading the consumer experience with the insect identity of the ingredient — the packaging disclosed cricket flour clearly, but the visual experience was of a conventional protein bar. This "stealth" or "ingredient" strategy — using insect protein as a functional ingredient in familiar product forms rather than leading with the insect as the primary experience — became one of the dominant strategies in the Western insect food industry.

Other Notable Companies: Ÿnsect (France, now one of the world's largest insect farming operations, primarily producing black soldier fly larvae and mealworms for animal feed and aquaculture); Protix (Netherlands, industrial insect protein for animal feed); Aspire Food Group (USA/Canada, cricket and black soldier fly farming); Gryllus (Japan, cricket powder and fermented cricket products); Small Giants (Australia, cricket flour); and many others.

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