A small artisanal pasta shop in France's Thiefosse, named Atelier a Pates, is witnessing booming business after they introduced a new high-protein pasta created from flour with seven percent pulverized crickets or grasshoppers some four years back. The pasta has become so popular that the owner of the shop, Stephanie Richard, is now struggling to meet demand, HNGN reported.
While the thought of insects in your diet may churn the stomach of many, the fact is that even the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has endorsed Richard's positivity about eating grubs. In a report published in 2013, FAO who noted that the "huge potential" in insects, not only for feeding people, but also livestock.
According to Richard, the idea of incorporating insects in pasta started while she was working on high-protein pasta, especially meant for athletes in 2012. Around this time, she also came in contact with an insect supplier from eastern Lyon whom she sold the idea. Soon she started making pasta from insect flour and nearly 500 packages just flew off her shelves in no time after the food was introduced to the market.
The product incited the curiosity of her customers and soon became a great success, AFP quoted Richard, who is also a part-time French teacher, as saying. Her only staff, Alain Limon said that while the ingredient's name may turn off many people, the pasta is really delicious. In addition, it is beneficial for people with certain mineral deficiencies.
According to Richard, the recipe used in the pasta includes a mixture of seven percent insect flour and 93 percent organic spelt wheat flour. She uses pulverized grasshoppers and crickets with the flour, and sometimes even mixes pounded cepes with cricket flour. The cepes impart a nutty flavor making the item somewhat taste like whole wheat pasta.
While several European cheeses also have or use insects, for instance France's mimolette, which has a grey crust as a result of including cheese mites to add flavor, or the Sardinian casu marzu containing live insect larvae, but such foods are yet to gain popularity in the West.
Meanwhile, Richard is working on new innovations and is seriously contemplating to hire more staff to cope with the growing demand. Her innovative pasta costs $6.60 for 250 gram.
