Crickets are set to hit the shelves as Sainsbury’s becomes the first supermarket to sell edible bugs. Customers will be able to fill their shopping baskets with Eat Grub’s Smoky BBQ Crunchy Roasted Crickets in 250 of the supermarket giant’s stores from Sunday. The house crickets, also known as acheta domesticus, are farmed in Europe will come in packets of about 50 and sell for £1.50 per bag. Anyone brave enough to try the snack is promised to get a “crunchy texture with a rich, smoky flavour”. Bugs already form a significant part of diets around the world and the global edible insect market is set to exceed $522m (£406m) by 2023.Gram for gram, dried crickets contain more protein than beef, chicken and pork – with 100g containing 68g of protein, in comparison to just 31g of protein in beef. Bugs also top the list when it comes to sustainable food sources. They emit considerably lower levels of greenhouse gases than most livestock and are much more efficient in terms of the resources needed to farm them – crickets, for example, need 12 times less feed than cattle.
