Insect Snacks Debut In Japanese Vending Machines

October 12, 2021: 12:00 AM EST

Snacks made with fried and dried insects – house crickets, locusts, silkworm chrysalises, caterpillars, beetles, etc. – are now being sold in more than 20 vending machines in Japan. A machine installed recently in a shop in the province of Gifu dispenses cookies laced with cricket powder, salted fried locusts, red-legged grasshoppers, and two-spotted crickets. The bottled bugs are sold for about $9 a jar, and the menu changes depending on the time of year. The insects are supplied by Hamaru Foods, which imports frozen bugs – both farmed and captured – from Thailand and cooks them at its factory. The process is eco-friendly because insect farming purportedly requires much less water and grain than livestock farming, and the growing period is shorter.

"Vending machine selling fried insect snacks debuts in central Japan's Gifu Pref.", Mainichi Japan, October 12, 2021, © THE MAINICHI NEWSPAPERS

Domains

FOOD BUSINESS NEWS
Market Segments
News
Companies
Innovation
New Products
Retail
Savory Snacks

Geographies

Worldwide
Asia-Pacific
Japan

Insect Snacks Debut In Japanese Vending Machines

Domains

Geographies

Categories

See also: