In the district of Kaunas, the brothers grow food of the future: the most difficult thing is to accustom the consumer to these snacks

In the village of Altoniškės, on a specially adapted farm, it was full of crickets raised by the brothers. They are used in the food industry. Delights made from them are created: crispy sandwiches of dried crickets seasoned with spices, breads, dried pork sausages with cricket flour.

Some of the crickets are ground into flour that is used to flavor common dishes.

The business was inspired by a television show.

The non-traditional business owners Donatas and his brother Marius grew crickets and studied independently. They researched how to make cricket products themselves, mobilizing the ability to create innovative recipes.

Donatas reveals that the company “Acheta”, which produces non-traditional cricket products, was registered recently, just half a year ago, but the work with crickets, cultivating them, investigating their nutritional value began even two years ago.

“Myself, maybe since I was 14 years old. Working. There was not a single summer in which I did not work as a student while I was still a student. Perhaps then the perception had already formed that one day I would start my own business”, reveals Donatas about the strong character traits he developed as a child.

He said the young man was always interested in discoveries in the food industry, healthy meals, new trends and dietary phenomena around the world.

“I collected information about tube-grown meat, I read a lot. But somehow unexpectedly, on a foreign news channel with my brother, we saw a report about the Scandinavian company Fazer baking bread with crickets. This news was very interesting. There were many You ask why crickets? We watched the show maybe in February 2017, and in April we visited the company, found the company’s cricket suppliers and brought the first eggs and cricket equipment from Finland, we consulted a lot and learned how grow crickets. “After all, we were newcomers in this field,” Donatas opens at the beginning.

Crickets: a protein bomb?

The brothers experimented a lot, they made mistakes until they finally had the necessary experience to start in the field of food innovation. It was not easy to obtain a license for the processing of insects in Lithuania. There were a series of thresholds for state institutions to go down. It took the company half a year to receive all the documents necessary for the operation.

Now their latest products, dried pork sausages with cricket flour and crusty bread, were especially successful at the “Choose a Lithuanian Product” exhibition, which took place recently on October 10 at Kaunas Žalgiris Arena.

“If we are already doing such an interesting business, we have to produce the best product. We don’t want to grow crickets for ourselves anyway, we focus on the final product, so the raw material must be of the highest class, with the higher protein content possible ”, said the director of the company.

According to him, other producers extract 50 to 55 percent of the crickets. protein, and “Acheta” – 65% To maintain this result, the temperature, humidity, fresh air, sterility, pet food of the place where the crickets are raised are important.

“We cooperate with the Food Institute of Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), we constantly take samples of our products to a certified laboratory to verify that the product labels reflect the real situation. Total nutrition is studied, microbiological tests are carried out: protein, omega and amino acid levels are determined. The shelf life of the product is analyzed. This is very important for quality assurance and self-control ”, the interviewee opened.

It is important for them to extract the maximum possible amount of protein in their production to adapt to both the daily needs of people and professional athletes. Ways and means are planned for adult crickets to reach up to 78 percent. protein.

Why in the village of Altoniškės?

The brothers said that they chose the village of Altoniškės for their activities not by chance.

Here they both grew up with their brother, they both come from this town and it is from the farm where crickets are now grown.

“We renovated the house farm building, adapted it to grow crickets. We did everything on our own, we grew up with patience. We work about 200 m2 M. m of premises. 100 square meters. I need crickets for the farm and 100 square meters – its processing area, commercial kitchen. So far, we are two and two with a brother. We have companies that help us, but we will soon be looking for employees. We understand that our product is not a traditional Lithuanian sausage, which immediately loses its sales volume. In our activities it is important to educate, train people, let them try, understand that crickets are a natural source of protein. This is the food of the future. We participate in events, we support the initiatives of our distribution locations, we give people a treat because we want to grow our client. And it takes time and hard work. Every day we create new products, we have the assistance of an experienced restaurant chef with recipes. We cooperate with him, “Donatas opened.

There is no place for unhappy crickets in food

At the farm, the crickets are kept in open plastic boxes. They don’t run away from them anywhere because the animals tend to stay in warm, good places where there is enough food.

It is true that there are jumps between them. But the jumping crickets, do not enter the food.

“If he left his medium, then he was unhappy, he was sick. There is no place for unfortunate crickets in food, ”Donatas joked.

Pets are fed a special feed, more suitable for industrially grown grain crickets. Your partners in Finland must bring special foods to Lithuania from business.

“Well, if someone comes up with the idea of ​​growing crickets for their own needs, they perfectly use all the waste: fruit and vegetable peels, rodents. They love grass, carrots, apples. We cannot apply such a diet to them, because the lack of removal of food waste can generate mold, which would seriously damage the quality of the products, even pets could die ”, said the businessman.

According to him, crickets love heat, that’s why the farm has a recovery system. Beetles are very sensitive to fluctuations in temperature. When autumn comes to sleep and in winter it freezes.

“We have a life cycle of seven weeks. They crackle in the heat, they move, they live, later after the temperature drops, they sleep, freeze and travel to production. 6pm we keep them cold, then we take them to the kitchen, they are blanched there, and then around 10 o’clock. dry. We inspect the dry ones, we decide where they will go next: flour or if they will be roasted with spices. After introducing the flavor, we take the packaging “, said the interlocutor about the production process.

The hardest part is “taming” the market

Donatas revealed that there were some difficult stages in the company. Much had to be learned after bringing the first inhabitants of the farm. The brothers felt that a newborn had arrived at the house, nothing was known about it, they had not experienced everything, it was scary. However, this stage is already in the past, now everything is aligned, arranged in its places. Anxiety and fear are overcome.

However, creating a new product and bringing it to market takes a lot of effort – you try, you do it, you throw it away, you try again, you experience it.

Although it is possible to continue with this activity, all the profits obtained continue to be invested in development, equipment, new materials and recipe development. Still no big winnings. However, the most difficult thing for cricket growers is to accustom consumers to non-traditional products, communicate with people, demonstrate that these products are organic and natural.

Although other countries have already liked cricket products, some of the production is exported to Belgium and the United Kingdom, Lithuanians are still quite conservative.

“I think that any activity, all missions, greatly enriches a person’s life. Leaving the comfort zone is not easy. He had to go to Norway himself to earn money. It was difficult to take off his suit and become a simple worker. However, each crisis is difficult in its own way, and interesting work provides invaluable experience and joy, ”emphasized Donatas, an inventor of non-traditional businesses, whose primary goal is to become a unique food retailer, not a a cricket breeder and provider.