REDUCING COST, IMPROVING EFFICIENCY AND PRODUCTIVITY OF FARMING CRICKETS AS FOOD INGREDIENTS

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: TERMINATED
• Funding Source: SMALL BUSINESS GRANT
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1010096
• Grant No.: 2016-33610-25692
• Project No.: GEOK-2016-03853
• Proposal No.: 2016-03853
• Program Code: 8.12
• Project Start Date: Sep 1, 2016
• Project End Date: Aug 31, 2019
• Grant Year: 2016

Project Director
Dossey, A. T.

Recipient Organization
ALL THINGS BUGS LLC
120 MARK TWAIN CIRCLE APT L5
Athens,GA 30605-6613

Performing Department
(N/A)

Non Technical Summary
Reducing Cost, Improving Efficiency and Productivity of Farming Crickets as Food IngredientsAs the human population grows, it is ever more important to sustain rather than increase our levels of consumption from the earth and it's ecosphere. The market for protein is exploding. The global market for protein products was $15.2 billion in 2012. By 2017, these markets are projected to increase 30% to $20 billion dollars. Demand for protein has expanded well beyond the traditional body builder market into every area of life including weight loss, wellness, and sports nutrition among others. Yet already about 70% of agricultural land, and 30% of the total land on earth, is used to produce livestock. Thus, expanding the use of land for livestock production is neither feasible nor sustainable. The good news is farming insects, utilizes less energy, feed, land and water than other livestock at any scale (small or large). Thus, farming insects contributes less to climate change and overall pollution levels. However, farming insects such as crickets has not had the benefit of advanced farming practices, technology and innovations that other animal derived commodities have had over the past 150+ years. Insect farming has remained entirely manual, much smaller scale and largely unchanged for at least 60+ years. Due largely to lack of mechanization and innovation, these inefficiencies result in high costs and unreliable supply. Frozen crickets cost $4-$10 per pound. Compared to other protein sources, this is high. Cricket powder is at $24 per pound. Cricket powder requires 4 pounds of crickets to produce 1 pound of powder). Thus, any cost reductions in cricket production will result in a 4 fold corresponding reduction in the cost of dried products/ingredients made from them. In order to become competitive in the market, frozen cricket prices must drop to $1 per pound. The current Phase II SBIR funding will allow us to refine and commercialize our successful Phase I innovations to improve the feasibility of insects as a mainstream agricultural product and food ingredient. With those funds we will be able to: 1) improve efficiency/cost and mechanize cricket mass harvesting and freezing through refinement of our Phase I cricket harvesting/flash freezing prototype, 2) refine our Phase I prototype to produce a market-ready device to improve efficiency/cost of water delivery to crickets and 3) develop at least 5 new cricket feed formulations which will be quickly commercialized on new and existing farms.All Things Bugs LLC (www.crickepowder.com) continues to commercialize its innovations the rapidly growing human consumption market. Recently, all major news sources have covered insect as an up and coming source of food, often mentioning our company. Examples include: Huffington Post, Forbes, Fortune, Fast Company, The Newyorker, Fox News and many others. Further, as a leader in the industry in innovation and as the largest manufacturer of high quality insect based ingredients, our company is well positioned to commercialize technologies from this project. Our company has had great commercial success with its finely milled whole cricket powder (GrioproTM) (developed from other Phase I and Phase II USDA SBIR projects), including nearly half $1 million (over 10,000 pounds of cricket powder) in sales. Our product far out-performs the competition in overall quality as finer, ligher colored and overall better functionality in a wide variety of food and beverage products. It is being used by other companies in protein bars, baked goods. protein shakes, snacks, pastas and many other products on the market. We believe that these innovations will be broadly useful beyond crickets for farms producing other edible insects such as grasshoppers, mealworms and others. If successful, with this Phase II project, our company will be a step toward revolutionizing the food industry and an important change for agriculture by improving production efficiencies and scale of an entire Class of animals largely ignored to date - Insecta.

Animal Health Component

0%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

10%

Applied

20%

Developmental

70%

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
131	3899	1130	100%

Knowledge Area
131 - Alternative Uses of Land;

Subject Of Investigation
3899 - Other animals, general;

Field Of Science
1130 - Entomology and acarology;

Keywords

agriculture

cricket

insect

protein

small farm

sustainability

sustainable

Goals / Objectives
As the human population grows, it is ever more important to sustain rather than increase our levels of consumption from the earth and it's ecosphere. The market for protein is exploding. The global market for protein products was $15.2 billion in 2012. By 2017, these markets are projected to increase 30% to $20 billion dollars. Demand for protein has expanded well beyond the traditional body builder market into every area of life including weight loss, wellness, and sports nutrition among others. Yet already about 70% of agricultural land, and 30% of the total land on earth, is used to produce livestock. Thus, expanding the use of land for livestock production is neither feasible nor sustainable. The good news is farming insects, utilizes less energy, feed, land and water than other livestock at any scale (small or large). Thus, farming insects contributes less to climate change and overall pollution levels. However, farming insects such as crickets has not had the benefit of advanced farming practices, technology and innovations that other animal derived commodities have had over the past 150+ years. Insect farming has remained entirely manual, much smaller scale and largely unchanged for at least 60+ years. Due largely to lack of mechanization and innovation, these inefficiencies result in high costs and unreliable supply. Frozen crickets cost $4-$10 per pound. Compared to other protein sources, this is high. Cricket powder is at $24 per pound. Cricket powder requires 4 pounds of crickets to produce 1 pound of powder). Thus, any cost reductions in cricket production will result in a 4 fold corresponding reduction in the cost of dried products/ingredients made from them. In order to become competitive in the market, frozen cricket prices must drop to $1 per pound. The current Phase II SBIR funding will allow us to refine and commercialize our successful Phase I innovations to improve the feasibility of insects as a mainstream agricultural product and food ingredient. With those funds we will be able to: 1) improve efficiency/cost and mechanize cricket mass harvesting and freezing through refinement of our Phase I cricket harvesting/flash freezing prototype, 2) refine our Phase I prototype to produce a market-ready device to improve efficiency/cost of water delivery to crickets and 3) develop at least 5 new cricket feed formulations which will be quickly commercialized on new and existing farms.The section on "Phase II Work Plan" will describe how we plan to address these questions. These answers will address the interests of industry customers and consumers toward optimizing the commercialization and market potential for high quality protein powder products made from insects. All objectives and experiments will be designed to build on Phase I prototypes, discoveries and successes toward developing market-ready models for commercialization by the end of Phase II.Cricket Harvesting and Freezing• Can our Phase I prototype be improved to freeze crickets more efficiently at higher output? : Refine Phase I Cricket Harvesting Machine Build and Design; Build and Test a Commercial Scale Prototype Ready for Sale to Farms.• Do other materials and mesh sizes improve efficiency when sifting live crickets?• What are the ideal conveyor belt mesh sizes and materials to use for flash freezing crickets to reduce loss of yield from crickets getting stick in the belt while not compromising air flow?• What is the optimal air speed in a flash freezer to maximize cricket flash freezing rate while not blowing crickets off the belt?2. Efficient and Automated Cricket Watering System• Does the water system design affect cricket growth, food consumption, and survival? : Refine, Automate and Evaluate Phase I Prototype.• Does the new water system (from Phase I) reduces water contamination?• Can an automated version of Phase I design be produced?3. Development of Improved Cricket Feed Formulations• Can better feed formulations be developed with better cricket growth, higher fecundity and overall increased farm productivity? : Optimizing Cricket Feeds for Lower Cost and Higher Yields.• Can cricket feeds containing no animal sourced ingredients be developed that perform as well as or better than existing commercially available cricket feeds?• Can unconventional, agricultural/industrial byproducts or underutilized biomass be used to make cricket feed lower cost and more sustainable without compromising performance?

Project Methods
?Task 1. Cricket Harvesting: Work Item 1: To complete evaluation of our current prototype, we will conduct experimental mock production runs of crickets of quantities of 300 to 500 lbs. This will allow us to do about 10 replicates of each trial run. In these runs we will evaluate: 1) cricket flow rate, 2) optimal cricket throughput density, 3) percent of crickets adhering to harvester surfaces and not coming out into the bags and 4) quality parameters (such as temperature) of bags of harvested crickets at various production rates (pounds per hour).Work Item 2: During this Work Item we will evaluate test results from Work Item 1 and modify the existing prototype to eliminate problems identified in this Work Item 1 and Phase 1. In these runs we will evaluate: 1) cricket rate (pounds per hour) moving through the harvester, 2) percent of crickets sticking to harvester surfaces (testing at least 3 types of surfaces), 3) time between equipment cleaning cycles (ideally should be no less than 12 hours) and 4) quality aspects of crickets coming out of the harvester such as temperature.Work Item 3: Conduct final evaluations of the fully modified prototype.Work Item 4: During this Work Item, we shall design and construct a production harvest of larger capacity based on lessons learned in phase I and initial prototype testing in phase II from Work Items 1-3. This Work Item will generate a fully functional and commercially viable frozen cricket harvester ready to be used at any modern large scale cricket farm.Work Item 5: Conduct experimental tests similar to those in Work Items 1 and 2 on the new commercial scale harvester.Work Item 6: Install the new commercial scale harvester in a production facility, and test in a real world cricket farm setting. Experiments and evaluation of parameters similar to those in Work Items 1 and 2 will be conducted, but at larger scale with inputs being cricket farm staff shaking dividers from full sized cricket brooders into the hopper for separation from refuse, freezing and harvest into 50 pound bags as a fully automated single-step procedure for those staff. Task 2. Efficient and Automated Cricket Watering System: To achieve our objective of developing an improved automated cricket watering system, we plan the following Phase II experiments development work.Experiment 1, Experiments Testing Cricket Growth, Food Consumption and Survival Using Our Watering Prototype: Cricket eggs will be obtained by exposing plastic boxes filled with water saturated coconut husk to colonies of adult house crickets for 2 days. Oviposition boxes will be incubated at 27ºC until eggs hatched. Eclosing first instars will be aspirated into a petri dish and weighed. Groups consisting of 700 mg of first instars will be introduced to each of 6 rearing containers. The mean weight of one first instar is approximately 0.68 mg and the approximated number of crickets in 700 mg is 1,029. Initially each rearing container will be filled with 2 egg cartoons to provide shelter. Two water dispensing treatments will be compared. Treatment 1 will consist of conventional cricket water feeders lined with polyurethane foam to prevent drowning, and treatment 2 will consist of Phase I design based prototypes. The prototypes will be designed to hold the same water volume as the conventional water feeders. Food consumption will be measured by recording the exact weight provided to each rearing container. Rearing containers will be maintained in an environmental chamber at 27ºC, 65% RH, and 14 h photophase. At the end of 6 weeks, all alive crickets, remaining food, and frass will be weighed and recorded. Estimates of weight gained and food consumed will be transformed to dry-weight estimates using published estimates of cricket water content and by using previously obtained determinations of the water content of the cricket feed formulation and its hygroscopic characteristics after exposure to the same conditions used to grow the crickets for a period of 1 week. Total cricket live-weight at the end of 6 weeks, feed consumed and number of surviving crickets per container will be compared among water dispensing treatments.Evaluating Water Contamination: Samples of water will be taken from the water absorbing substrate and water jars. Samples will be analyzed for content of organic compounds such as ammonia, methane, urea, uric acid, etc. using a gas chromatograph / mass spectrometer.Development of Automated Cricket Watering System: Each of this systems tested will be tested for long term efficiency and lick control. The best candidates will be tested in a cricket colony from start to production in experiments designed as above described for the water dispensing simple design.Task 3. Development of Improved Cricket Feed Formulations: Self-Selection Study (6 months): This will be done using a self-selection providing a choice of food items of known composition, and developing a formulation based on the consumption data. Six groups of crickets will be placed in rearing containers as described above. Groups will consist of 700 mg of first instars. The groups will be provided with water and shelter as described above. Different food dishes will also be provided. Each dish will be filled with a different ingredient. Consumption of each ingredient will be measured for each of the groups. The groups will be allowed to grow and develop in environmental chambers at 27ºC, 65% RH, and 14:10 h (L:D) photoperiod for a period of 6 weeks. At the end of the experiment, crickets will be separated and weighed to determine weight gained.Cricket Feed Formulation Development and Evaluation Studies, and Testing Optimal Protein/Carbohydrate/Lipid Ratios: A feed will be formulated based on the relative consumption of each of the ingredients described in Experiment 1. This feed ("Diet S") will be compared with the best performing among feeds tested in Phase I. Two additional versions of Diet S will also be tested: a high protein "Diet P" and a high carbohydrate "Diet C" version. Comparisons of food consumed, weight gained, cricket survival, and food utilization will be done among 3 treatments using groups of 700 mg of first instars (6 per treatment) for a period of 6 weeks (conditions described above). Results will be used to formulate new diets using the information obtained from the self-selection experiment and used to formulate Diet S.Data analysis: Means of weight gained, food consumed, number of surviving crickets, and ECI values will be analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and compared among treatments using the Tukey-Kramer HSD test. The ECI values will be root square arc-sine transformed before analysis to eliminate bias due to their binomial distribution. General linear model (GLM) will be used to analyze weight gained in relation to number of surviving individuals and compare it among treatments using least square mean Tukey-Kramer HSD test.Evaluation of Improved Diet Effect on Fecundity (reproductive capacity): After weighed, counted and recorded, crickets will be returned to their rearing boxes to complete development on their respective food treatment. Twelve groups of 2 males and 2 females from each food treatment will be placed in plastic boxes modified with 6 screened windows on the sides and two on the cover. Cricket groups will be provided with water, pieces of egg cartoon as shelter, food of their respective treatment formulation, and a petri dish filled with water-saturated coconut husk as oviposition substrate. Oviposition dishes will be replaced daily for a period of 6 days. Oviposited dishes will be placed in environmental chamber to allow eggs to complete development. First instars from each group and oviposition day will be counted. Progeny per female will be compared among treatments and oviposition dates using GLM accounting for adult mortality occurring during the experiment.

Progress 09/01/16 to 08/31/19

Outputs
Target Audience:Due to the fact that All Things Bugs, LLC has been buying crickets from farmers for its powder production, it has a strong working relationship with many in the industry. This has given us a substantial advantage in discussing our equipment and feed direct with farmers. As the industry grows, we will look to create distributor relationships, but we have targeted primarily farmers to date. Additionally, All Things Bugs LLC is planning to establish its own insect farm to augment supply of insects for its products as well as serve as a testing ground for its insect farming and other innovations. Changes/Problems:We did not experienced any significant problems or set-backs on this project. Our results and progress have exceeded expectations. What's more, we were able to do more for this project than originally anticipated. Thus, this Phase II project's original goals were completed well within budget, ahead of schedule and with additional results and successes. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Yes, at conferences. Nothing proprietary was presented, only general descriptions of our progress. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1) We made substantial discoveries and collected data on the nutritional needs of crickets and the impact various nutrients (such as fiber) make in the diets of crickets. 2) We discovered that cold quickly immobilizes crickets, which is good for our planned cricket harvester/freezer design (once they hit cold air they will not escape). 3) Crickets will drink water from above, from droplets and from absorbent material. This could be an advantage for delivering water to crickets efficiently in a less labor intensive way. It may also allow the water sources for the crickets to remain cleaner as they will deposit less waste on water sources above them than below. 4) The vibrational forces of shakers/sifters has a stunning effect on crickets and immobilizes them at least partially. This will help keep them from escaping from the planned cricket harvester/freezer system. 5) various absorbent materials such as stone, ceramic, etc. work well to deliver water to crickets from above or below. Crickets can drink sufficient water from these. These can be used to wick water to the crickets. 6) Shaking/sifting is an effective way to remove waste from crickets before freezing. 7) Combining waste removal and freezing into one system will make cricket harvesting much more efficient. 8) We have completed the creation of prototypes for the cricket harverter andthe feed formulation.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2020 Citation: Morales-Ramos JA, Rojas MG, Dossey AT, Berhow M (2020) Self-selection of food ingredients and agricultural by-products by the house cricket, Acheta domesticus (Orthoptera: Gryllidae): A holistic approach to develop optimized diets. PLoS ONE 15(1): e0227400. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227400

Progress 09/01/16 to 08/31/17

Outputs
Target Audience:The primary audience for this project is the food and agricultural industries - particularly food and food ingredient companies but really any commercial operation interested in cleaner more sustainable protein sources. The insect-based food ingredients (powders, pastes or liquids) produced by All Things Bugs LLC have a very wide range of commercial applications in the human food, animal/pet feed and nutraceutical industries. Products utilizing these ingredients might include: fortified dry goods, fortified protein supplement powders, high protein fortified porridges and cereals, "meat" substitutes, chitosan (nutraceutical derived from chitin), high protein beverages, protein fortified bars and powders for athletes as well as numerous types of snack foods. Though we are primarily seeking to reach potential customers in the food industry, our project and company successes will also depend on reaching a wider audience through various means. To achieve our goals, both for this USDA SBIR project and for the company as a whole, we targeted and successfully reached the following audiences and stake holders: Industry audience: Food companies Ingredient Distributors Nutrient supplement and nutracetuical companies Company interested in more sustainable protein sources Agricultural Audience: Current and prospective cricket, mealworm, grasshopper and other insect farmers Small farmers Organic Farmers Urban Farmers Farming Innovators and Entrepreneurs Farmers seeking new alternative crops/livestock Consumer audience: Consumers interested in environmentally friendly food sources People interested in healthier sources of protein Athletes Body Builders People with allergies to other protein sources such as soy, dairy, gluten, peanut, etc. Audience for Educational Mission: Press and media Universities (especially Entomology, Agriculture and Food Science departments for curriculum and career development) Organizations promoting sustainability, urban farming, urban agriculture, etc. Government agencies in the US ( FDA , USDA , DARPA , NASA , Department of Defense , GRAS certification , Generally Rearded as Safe , etc.) Governments world-wide (governments in developing nations, etc.) Scientific organizations (interested in food, agriculture, health, chemistry, nutrition and/or sustainability such as: Institute of Food Technologists, Entomological Society of America Future thinkers, bloggers and thought leaders interested in sustainability, food and health Media: National Media ( CNN , Wallstreet Journal , New York Times , Washington Post , etc. ) Social Media Academic Publications Newspapers (Forbes, Fortune, Huffington Post, etc.) Food News Web Sites Blogs Food Industry Media Outlets (Food Navigator, Natural Products Insider, Institute of Food Technologists, etc.) Book Publishers: Springer, Elsevier, Wiley, University publishers, others. Changes/Problems:Problems Encountered We have not experienced any significant problems or set-backs on this project. Our results and progress have exceeded expectations to date and things are going very well. In fact, we are ahead of schedule so much that we are submitting this report early so that we can access the second year's funds soon and proceed with building our Phase II cricket harvester model which was originally planned for Year 2. Thus, our only limitation on a very successful project is currently being able to access the second year's portion of the grant funds. What's more, we believe we will be able to do more for this project than originally anticipated. Thus, we estimate this Phase II project's original goals will be completed well within budget, ahead of schedule and with additional results and successes. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?None. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Yes, at conferences. Nothing proprietary was presented, only general descriptions of our progress. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?1) Complete the Phase II cricket harvester/freezer system. This system will include a substanial amount of our intellectual property and input, and will have to be built from scratch as there are not sufficient systems or machines commercially available for use with crickets. 2) We will evaluate numerous natural products and agricultural byproducts in self-selection studies to determine the nutritional and food preferences of crickets when given various ingredient choices. Data from those tests will be used to produce formulated diets that will be provided to crickets and compared with commercially available cricket feed controls.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? As of the end of 2017 (as I belive this is the mid-project progress reportr for REEport): 1) We made substantial discoveries and collected data on the nutritional needs of crickets and the impact various nutrients (such as fiber) make in the diets of crickets. 2) We discovered that cold are quickly immobilizes crickets, which is good for our planned cricket harvester/freezer design (once they hit cold air they will not escape). 3) Crickets will drink water from above, from droplets and from absorbent material. This could be an advantage for delivering water to crickets efficiently in a less labor intensive way. It may also allow the water sources for the crickets to remain cleaner as they will deposit less waste on water sources above them than below. 4) The vibrational forces of shakers/sifters has a stunning effect on crickets and immobilizes them at least partially. This will help keep them from escaping from the planned cricket harvester/freezer system. 5) various absorbent materials such as stone, ceramic, etc. work well to deliver water to crickets from above or below. Crickets can drink sufficient water from these. These can be used to wick water to the crickets. 6) Shaking/sifting is an effective way to remove waste from crickets before freezing. 7) Combining waste removal and freezing into one system will make cricket harvesting much more efficient.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting & Food Expo; July 25-28, 2017; Sands Expo Center, Las Vegas, NV, USA; Speaker; Title: A Vision for the Insect Based Food Industry: Perspective of a Scientist Entrepreneur and Research From Farm to Table, Including Processing; in the symposium titled Challenges in the Edible Insect-Based Food Industry: Farm to Fork, Part 1; Dr. Aaron T. Dossey. Room: Bellini 2105 6/28/2017, 9:35 am  9:55 pm.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Institute of Food Technologists Oklahoma (IFT-OK); IFT Student Association (IFTSA); at the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) campus (Edmond, OK, USA); Food Science Symposium 2017; April 28, 2017; Keynote speaker; Developing Insects for Food, Feed, Pharma and Other Valuable Applications; Aaron T. Dossey. PRESS release: The Future of Food Science  The Bees Knees?.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: BugFest; North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences; Raleigh, NC, USA; September 16, 2017; 3:00 PM Speaker; Title: Developing Insects for Food, Feed, Pharma and Other Valuable Applications; Company Booth/Kiosk (All Things Bugs LLC / GrioPro protein); Dr. Aaron T. Dossey
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Morales-Ramos, J. A., M. G. Rojas, and A. T. Dossey. Age-dependent Food utilization in small groups of Acheta domesticus (Orthoptera: Gryllidae) at two temperatures. Symposium: Insects: Its whats for Dinner! Entomological Society of America Annual meeting, Denver, Colorado, November 5-8, 2017.