An American innovator has launched a new crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, in a bid to get the world’s first range of cricket and mealworm bolognese pasta sauces off the ground.
One Hop Kitchen has developed a process that allows it to turn insects into a textured protein, which has a flavour reminiscent of beef. And the company pointed out that insects have just as strong a nutritional profile as beef, but require substantially less land, water and feed to produce.
The brand has been created by brothers Eli and Lee Cadesky, who were also behind C-Fu Foods – the company that developed a texturised insect protein similar to tofu that could be used in a range of foods from burgers and chicken, mousses and pâté to snack foods such as crisps.
The mealworm and cricket pasta sauces both contain vine-ripened tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, sunflower oil, onions, garlic, basil and insects – and, importantly, will make it easier for consumers to incorporate insect protein into their diets by offering them a ready-made and convenient product.
This could be particularly useful, with insects being touted as a viable substitute for meat proteins, as global populations continue to grow and meat becomes an increasingly scarce and unsustainable commodity.
Compared to an equivalent bolognese sauce with beef, One Hop Kitchen’s insect pasta sauces conserve as much as 300 litres of water during the rearing of the insects.
It takes five times the amount of resources to raise a pound of beef than a pound of insects, the company said, and the nutritional profile of insects stands up well against that of beef. Insects contain 25% less saturated fat than an equivalent serving of beef yet have the same amount of protein, 100mg of omega-3 per serving, three times more vitamin B-12 and One Hop Kitchen’s sauces are free from added sugar.
And, it added, they boast a flavour “that would make your Nona proud”.
The Toronto-based start-up is looking to raise $25,000 to help bring the products to market.
“Right now we make every single jar ourselves in a rented commercial kitchen,” said Eli Cadesky, as part of his original pitch on Indiegogo. “That means we’re doing everything from sourcing the insects to making the actual bolognese and tightening the lid on every jar with our own bare hands.
“[With investment] we’ll have the ability to scale up production and have a bigger impact on the environment while creating a cleaner and more robust food system. The more mouths we can feed, the greater impact we can have.”
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