We want to take you on a tour of our own farm that we set up in Thailand. We have been talking about it for a long time so it’s time you took a look inside. There’s a lot to learn about how cricket flour is made so let’s start right away with what our farm actually looks like inside.
Breeding room
The big room full of blue boxes you probably already saw in our pictures is the breeding room. This is where crickets live out most of their life. It’s where they feed, socialize, and eventually breed too.
Incubation room
When the eggs are laid, they are moved to the incubation room which is separate because the optimal conditions for incubation are slightly different. It requires a hotter and a more humid environment.
Hatching room
When the eggs are ready to begin hatching they are again moved to a different room because this process ideally needs a lot cooler temperatures.
Harvesting room
When crickets in the breeding room reach their optimal harvest age, they are taken into the harvesting room inside their blue boxes. That’s where we take “frass” out of the boxes. Frass is made up of excrements and exoskeletons that crickets shed throughout their life. It’s used as an organic fertilizer in plant farming. The crickets themselves are then cooled down to initiate their hibernation for the safest possible harvesting.
Washing room
Harvested crickets are then moved to the washing room where they go through a three-step process of washing and sterilization.
Drying room
Those wet crickets are then moved to a drying room. We have a hot-air-oven and a spray drier. Spray drying produces a very fine powder with a mild flavour that is lighter in colour. We use a powder from this drier for protein shakes because it’s soluble in water. The oven dried flour has more of a flavour and colour to it and it’s better suited for bars or crackers as it’s coarser and binds better to other ingredients.
Processing and storage rooms
The dried cricket matter is then frozen overnight to be ground, filtered, and analysed next day before it is vacuum packed to be shipped.
Support a sustainable startup with a big mission, try Sens products
At Sens, our mission is to make cricket protein look good and taste delicious! You can experience it with our tasty protein bars, gluten-free pasta, savoury protein crackers, baking cricket flour, or nutritious chocolate protein blend.
