Are Cricket Protein Snacks Actually More Sustainable? The Numbers Behind the Crunch

We talk a lot about how our cricket rice crackers taste. But there is a quieter reason a growing number of Singaporeans are reaching for insect-based snacks: the environmental maths behind them. If you have ever wondered whether sustainable protein snacks are genuinely better for the planet or just clever marketing, this one is for you. Let's look at what the research actually says about the environmental impact of cricket protein — the good, and the honest caveats.

Why protein is the part of your plate that matters most

When scientists measure the footprint of food, protein tends to be the heaviest hitter. Conventional livestock — especially cattle — needs enormous amounts of land, water and feed to convert plants into edible protein. That is where crickets get interesting. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization's landmark 2013 report, Edible Insects: future prospects for food and feed security, crickets need roughly six times less feed than cattle, four times less than sheep, and about half the feed of pigs and chickens to produce the same amount of protein. Producing 1 kg of live cricket weight takes around 1.7 kg of feed, compared with about 10 kg for beef.

Feed efficiency matters because feed is the upstream driver of almost everything else — the land cleared to grow it, the water to irrigate it, and the emissions from producing it. Get more protein per kilo of feed, and the whole chain gets lighter.

The numbers on emissions, water and land

A widely cited review by van Huis and Oonincx, The environmental sustainability of insects as food and feed (2017), concluded that producing a kilogram of edible protein from milk, chicken, pork or beef generally results in higher greenhouse gas emissions and requires far more land than farming insects. Earlier life-cycle work by Oonincx and de Boer found insect production associated with roughly 2.3–3.1 kg of CO₂-equivalent per kg of fresh insects — lower than beef and pork on a protein basis, and requiring markedly less land.

Water is perhaps the most dramatic contrast. Beef is famously water-hungry, and insects sidestep much of that demand because they are cold-blooded and don't need to drink and cool the way large mammals do. Crickets also thrive in vertically stacked farms rather than sprawling pasture, so the same protein output fits into a fraction of the physical footprint. For a land- and water-constrained city like Singapore, that compactness is not a small thing.

The honest caveat: it depends how they're farmed

Good content shouldn't oversell, so here is the nuance. A 2026 critical review in Biological Reviews argued that some environmental benefits of insect farming have, at times, been overstated — because the numbers swing heavily depending on what the insects are fed and how the farm is powered. Insects raised on premium commercial feed in energy-intensive facilities look very different from those raised on food by-products using efficient heating.

The takeaway isn't that crickets aren't sustainable — it's that how they're farmed is what turns the potential into a real result. That's exactly why sourcing and process matter, and why we're transparent about ours.

Where Singapore fits in

This isn't a fringe idea anymore. In July 2024, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) approved 16 insect species — including house crickets — for human consumption under a dedicated Insect Regulatory Framework, requiring farmed (not wild-caught) sourcing and proper heat treatment for ready-to-eat products. In other words, insect snacks in Singapore now sit inside a formal food-safety system, not a legal grey zone. Regulatory backing plus a compelling environmental case is a rare combination, and it's part of why alternative protein keeps gaining ground here.

Snacking with a lighter footprint

None of this means you need to overhaul your diet. The point of a sustainable snack is that it slots into the small, everyday choices — the mid-afternoon crunch, the post-gym bite, the Netflix handful — where a lower-footprint protein can quietly add up over a year. Swap a fried, resource-heavy snack for a baked, protein-rich one, and you've made an easy trade in your favour and the planet's.

That's the thinking behind HexaCrunch®. Our brown rice crackers are baked (never fried), powered by cricket protein, and come in three bold flavours — Charred Ember BBQ, Crimson Burn Paprika and Siam Blaze Tom Yum. If you're curious but not ready to commit, our 3-Pack Trio Taster is a low-stakes way to try all three. Sustainable snacking, it turns out, can also be the most interesting thing in your pantry.

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