Bug Bacon, what?
Well, over the years one of the things I’ve heard the most from people who were resistant to the idea of eating insects was some form of playful “you might get me to eat bugs…if they taste like bacon.”
That always jumped out at me, because some insects have a very similar fatty crunch and taste to real bacon anyway!
So I had the idea for Bug Bacon back in 2017 and really loved it, registered the site etc, but it didn’t make sense to introduce an actual product at the time for various reasons.
One of the main reasons was that I wanted to make sure the insect really fit what I was intending to do with the brand in order to make a superfood product, not just make an edible insect brand for the sake of having another insect protein snack. There are plenty of those out there already.
Last year though, after getting hooked on black soldier fly larvae as a snack, it finally started to really make sense when our supplier, Unique Biotech (Malaysia) began consistently hitting protein content in the high 60% range, as high as 68.7% protein in the second half of 2019.
These soldier grubs we’re using for Bug Bacon have the highest protein content in the world for BSFL.
Most BSF range in the low 40% range for protein, but Bug Bacon is a minimum of 65% healthy insect protein! Our grubs are also fed on clean, pre-consumer agrowaste inputs and are ideal for human consumption.
Bug Bacon soldier grubs are not defatted like some BSF products do in order to obtain a higher overall percentage of protein – a process which extracts out all the lipids and leaves just the insect protein meal.
These tasty grubs still contain all the healthy essential fatty acids, the amazing antimicrobial lauric acid, all the vitamins and minerals and fiber etc.
And even with being whole dried grubs, they are still more than 65% protein, which is comparable to cricket protein, while taking the sustainability of farming to an even higher level.
Bug Bacon is available now at Bugs Cafe in Siem Reap, Cambodia
I’ve been addicted to soldier grubs since the middle of 2019 when I first tried our supplier’s grubs and promptly ate the whole bag – I couldn’t get enough! Since then you’ve probably seen me talking about BSFL, and with good reason, they’re delicious. 🙂
At the time, though, they were following the standard process for farming black soldier flies, so the protein content was also standard, around 43%.
That’s fine, but it wasn’t really exciting enough to warrant a food product in my opinion.
Over the course of the year though, they continued experimenting with various diets and kept supplying me with tasty grubs, and as the protein content increased I began to see valid potential for BSFL as a food product.
The incredible benefit of BSFL is that it can compete with much cheaper protein at scale, and it’s arguably the most sustainable form of alternative protein on the planet – soldier grubs literally upcycle waste into valuable protein.
They are also a zero-waste product themselves, as the only by-product, the frass, makes a nutrient-rich fertilizer.
But most BSFL producers are in the 40% protein range which doesn’t really compete with other insects like crickets and grasshoppers, let alone plant-based proteins and traditional sources such as whey protein.
Bug Bacon though is 65% protein, surpassing mealworms and putting it into the arena with crickets. In short order I expect it to be the most cost-competitive insect food product as well, which will go a long way toward reaching a wider market who want sustainable protein, but don’t want to pay an astronomical price per kilo for it.
Despite all the excitement about the nutrition, though, I have to remember the most fun part – it’s the first “entovegan bacon”!
Forget all the vegan bacon made from rice paper or tempeh, human brains evolved to love bacon for the fatty, chewy, deliciousness that is unique to animal fats.
Obviously I’m not a fan of eating pork, but the beauty of soldier grubs is that you get that naturally chewy and crunchy and slightly fatty texture from the whole roasted larvae.
Add in all-natural plant-based bacon seasoning, and Bug Bacon is an unbeatable sustainable superfood snack with all the taste and texture of real bacon, plus all the sustainability of nature’s most efficient upcyclers, black soldier fly grubs.
Bug Bacon is available in various sizes including small sample packs perfect for tourists to take back home and share with friends and family!
Bug Bacon Roasted Soldier Grubs are currently available at Bugs Cafe in Siem Reap, Cambodia, with more locations on the way!
While the supply is traceable and Unique Biotech has been collecting sustainability data which I’ll be sharing soon, we need to upgrade the packaging to be fully biodegradable in order to achieve Entovegan Certified status (just because something comes in a “kraft paper” bag, doesn’t mean that’s a biodegradable bag – unfortunately they’re almost always lined with plastic or foil).
It is an entovegan product though, in that Bug Bacon is just plants + insects! And as we gear up to expand into other markets outside SE Asia the packaging will be fully biodegradable, making it the ideal high-protein, unbelievably delicious sustainable superfood snack…that tastes like BACON.
So if you’ve been joking that you’d try insects “if they taste like bacon”, well, no more excuses! Bug Bacon is a sustainable, nutritious, entovegan food rich in nutrients and high in protein, produced with zero waste and a positive net impact on the environment.
And after months of devouring bag after bag of these grubs and experimenting with different plant-based bacon recipes, I’m confident that you’re going to love them just as much as I do!
