Scale and automation… Aspire Food Group gears up to open world’s largest edible cricket processing facility

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If crickets – which are extremely attractive from both a nutritional and sustainable perspective – are going to have a significant place in the alternative protein arena, two things need to happen before you even start a conversation about consumer education, said COO Gabe Mott: costs come down and supply With consistently high-quality raw materials, the two motivating factors behind it must increase Aspire’snew plant.

“I’d say we could see prices drop close to an order of magnitude[once the multi-million-dollar facility is up and running] although the cost of production for any livestock farm is currently rising, from the cost of steel to freight to animal feed, and we are all in some kind of hyperinflation, “he told FoodNavigator-USA.

A chicken and egg situation …

He stepped back and said, “The food industry has always had this chicken and egg problem. No big CPG companies are going to incorporate insects because the cost is too high, the supply chain is too unpredictable and no one is going to get into building one investing in a robust supply chain when nobody is buying them.

“We were very fortunate to find some really significant partners who were ready to take over most of the manufacturing for the Canadian operations before we even broke ground. So the bulk of it will go to a pet food company, but that will also open up the human market. “

He added, “If you look at the companies that have failed to make this human food[using edible insects], there were a multitude of variables, but the real challenge was the cost and the unpredictable supply.

“If you go into retail and then suddenly you can’t fill the shelves, they give that space to someone else and they won’t invite you back, so it’s a precarious place for a CPG startup without a dedicated reliable supply chain. Once we’re up and running, we can dedicate some of our output to human nutrition innovation and entrepreneurship and help them bring products to market. “

The foundations for edible insects are strong, says Gabe Mott, COO of Aspire Food Group: Eating bugs isn’t crazy. In fact, from a more global perspective, it’s not even unusual to find that more than 2 billion people in 80% of countries around the world eat insects, from grasshoppers and ants in Mexico to fried grasshoppers in Thailand, Caterpillars in Africa and water bugs in China.

Cricket powder (ground whole crickets) is a wholesome food ingredient that is low in fat but high in protein (60-70%), calcium, iron, omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin B12.

Photo credit: GettyImages-sirichai-raksue

After the sale of the EXPO brand, agriculture and production are now exclusively focused on

A pioneer in the U.S. edible insect field, Austin, TX StrivingWas founded in 2012 by five MBA students from McGill University with the aim of increasing efficiency in insect breeding. Six years later it acquired the EXOConsumer brand that makes cricket bars and high protein powders that make it recently sold to Hoppy Planet FoodsSo that it can focus 100% on agriculture and production.

Today, much of Aspire’s production from its Texas facility still flows into the EXO brand, but it also supplies wholesale quantities of cricket powder (finely ground whole crickets) to other food and pet food companies, as well as high-nutrient grilling ate(Cricket droppings, exoskeleton scales and waste fodder), which is used as organic fertilizer, soil supplement and plant protection.

“We want to offer the crickets the healthiest and least stress-relieving environment”

The Ontario facility operated by Next Generation Manufacturing Canada with funding of 16.8 million from temperature to humidity to feeding regime and cleaning.

When it comes to raising crickets, he says, the most labor-intensive part is harvesting, “and we’ve now automated that almost 100%.”

He explained, “You have to wash everything, harvest the crickets, separate the crickets from the grass, and separate the live crickets from all dead crickets [a small percentage will die regardless of the conditions, he says, although Aspire has honed the operation such that it has dramatically reduced this percentage].

“We want to offer the crickets the healthiest environment with the least possible stress, that is, to monitor the conditions in every phase of life, especially in the first 48 hours.”

The best environment for crickets babies

Baby crickets (also known as “pinheads”), for example, need moisture but cannot have water droplets because they are so small they can actually drown in them, he points out.

“There are also many things that pinheads cannot climb. So if you leave divots or rooms, they can fall in and not climb out, they simply stack on top of each other, so a lot of technology is gone not only in the design of the environment, but also in the materials we have selected and the processing of the materials, the provision of water and all these things.

“If the food is not good enough, for example, the crickets cannot eat it because they are too small.”

Crickets are gregarious but get stressed and start to eat each other when they’re too tight

As for optimal density, house crickets are “sociable” and like to hang out with their conspecifics, but become notoriously stressed, aggressive and start nibbling on each other when they are too close together, he said as a commercial operator, you have to Find a sweet spot so you can run an efficient farm and have enough space for the crickets to thrive.

“You will gain 800 times your weight in less than a month. It’s a staggering rate of growth. They are climbers too, so when it comes to space it is not the volume that matters, but the surface. “

He added, “When we first started we scoured the literature and tried to see what we could learn and we found that the literature told us almost nothing because it was based on small containers, really small populations, and that was it simply cannot be transferred to larger agglomerations.

“We do a lot of surveillance at our Austin, Texas site and we’ve learned a lot, but as we move into this large facility we’re working with partners including a large telecommunications company[TELUS Agriculture] in Canada, a sophisticated sensor manufacturer[Swiftlabs], and an AI startup[DarwinAI​​] to collect data at an unprecedented level and then process it. “

Application of industrial automation and robotics, IoT and deep learning / analytics on farm and process crickets

Sensors designed and developed by Swiftlabs will monitor the environment using a TELUS private industrial 5G IoT network to provide real-time insights into conditions and plant operations, according to Aspire, which holds a number of patents for the development of technologies for the new facility.

DarwinAI’s machine learning tool then determines the optimal light, sound, humidity, temperature and food supply and first gives recommendations to the plant operator, but ultimately controls production in an automated feedback loop.

A&L Biological will develop bio-based fertilizer from the cricket food produced by the plant, while Dematic will implement an 11-story high-density automated storage and retrieval system.

• Checkout Part I of the FoodNavigator USA series “Focus on edible insects” HEREand keep an eye out for Part III in the coming days …

Snacks, bars and protein powders are the main uses for edible insect powder.

However, cricket powder also works well in veggie burgers, sausages, fruit rollups, shakes, and other products. Intake rates vary by product and in many cases are limited by cost rather than functionality, although you can generally get more in a bar than chips, for example.

Since cricket powder is more of a protein powder than flour, a 1: 1 substitution with wheat flour is generally not recommended.

Image: Hoppy Planet Foods (which acquired EXO Protein this fall).

Feeding crickets: you are what you eat?

Aspire is currently using a modified form of certified organic poultry feed to feed its crickets, but is looking to see if it could ingest a percentage of food waste or other more affordable / sustainable options in the future without compromising the consistency of the end product.

The challenge – and the chance, says Aspire – is that crickets are the literal manifestation of the axiom, “You are what you eat”. In other words, if you want to make cricket meal with a higher iron content, you can make it pretty easily by feeding them iron-rich feed. On the other hand, if you throw garbage in, you get garbage out.

Post-consumer waste, for example, is generally too variable, which can affect the growth rates and health of crickets, as well as the consistency of the cricket powder made from it. Food waste from commercial manufacturing operations is more attractive because of its greater consistency, but it could still pose challenges, the company said.

Process the grilling

After the harvest, the crickets [Acheta domesticus​] – Which are high in complete protein (65% dry weight), iron, vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids are frozen, dried and sold as-is, ground into powder or ground into a slurry and spray-dried (resulting in a lighter, finer Powder suitable for more food and beverage uses, Mott said).

“We have different approaches[to processing]. We have a patent for spray drying and also offer different roasting and grinding approaches depending on what the consumer is looking for. “

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https://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Article/2021/10/30/Edible-insects-in-focus-part-II-Scale-and-automation-Aspire-Food-Group-gears-up-to-open-world-s-largest-edible-cricket-processing-facility