Country Life: What will it take to get New Zealanders eating insects?

There are many ways to cook a locust - but Malcolm Diack tends to keep it simple.

"One of my favourite ways to have them is just deep fried with a tiny, wee pinch of salt," he said while frying some up for Country Life to taste.

"I would usually have them with a beer or something; just like chips."

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Diack has farmed locusts from his Dunedin city backyard since 2009.

Back then, he raised them as pet feed - but interest in insects as human kai prompted him to secure a food-grade certification.

"We sell to restaurants, and to people who want to eat them at events."

These migratory locusts (Locusta migratoria) are found all over the world, and self-introduced to New Zealand from Australia.

The cold climate here dissuades them from swarming and threatening crop farms, as they do abroad.

Diack says locusts are high in protein - higher per weight than a beef steak - and contain healthy fats and amino acids.

"They're a really good food, once you get your head past what they look like."

In the late 2010s, a surge in worldwide interest in bugs as food drove 10 to 15 companies to set up in New Zealand, Diack said - some raising bugs, and some processing them into products, like flour.

Masterton business Breadcraft did both, raising native black field crickets and turning them into cricket flour wraps.

But the craze didn't stick, and now only a handful of suppliers, like Diack, still exist in New Zealand.

"I think it's a bad thing, because this is my industry, and I'd like it to have taken off."

"I'm sure it could come back again."

Breadcraft's Director John Cockburn said cricket flour production ceased during the Covid-19 pandemic.

"We have really not considered bringing cricket wraps back - perhaps they were too early for their time, but were not selling well at all.

"But, you never say never."

Lincoln University Tutor in Master of Science in Food Innovation, Dr Ruchita Kavle, said a small market, high production costs and consumer hesitancy were the pain points for starting an edible bugs industry in New Zealand.

"Although insects are nutritionally valuable and environmentally promising, they are still culturally unfamiliar as food in New Zealand.

"To get Kiwis on board, insect products need to be familiar, tasty, safe, affordable, and positioned around clear benefits."

The use of insect flours in some products suggested that consumers were more willing to eat bugs they couldn't spot on their plate, she said.

"Whole insects may work as novelty foods, but they are unlikely to become mainstream.

"The messaging should focus less on "eating bugs" and more on nutrient-rich, high-protein, sustainability, functional nutrition, and food innovation."

Dr Kavle said the gym and sports nutrition markets were the most promising for insect-based foods.

"This group already buys protein powders, protein bars, creatine, collagen, and functional snacks," she said.

"Chocolate cricket protein bars, cricket protein powder, high-protein brownies, or savoury protein chips could be more acceptable than whole insects."

Currently, pet food was the most realistic market for insects.

"There may also be opportunities around native insects and Māori food innovation, but this would need careful cultural engagement, kaitiakitanga, biodiversity protection, and ethical commercialisation."