How Is Cricket Flour Actually Made? What Processing Does to Cricket Protein

How Is Cricket Flour Actually Made? What Processing Does to Cricket Protein

Cricket flour sounds like it should be simple: crickets, dried, ground. And broadly, that is what it is. But the phrase "cricket flour" hides a set of decisions — what the crickets ate, how they were killed, how they were dried, whether the fat was removed — and each of those decisions measurably changes what ends up in the bag.

This matters more than it sounds. Two products can both say "cricket powder" on the ingredients list and have meaningfully different protein, fat and mineral content. Here is what actually happens between farm and packet, and what the research says each step does.

Step one: farming and feed

Crickets are reared in stacked containers on a feed substrate — usually a grain-based mix. That substrate is not a trivial detail. It is one of the specific things Singapore's regulator asks about: under the SFA Insect Regulatory Framework, any business bringing in an insect species not already catalogued must submit details of the farming and processing method, including the type of substrate used to feed the insects.

The framework is built on three stated principles: the species must have a documented history of human consumption, contaminants must not be introduced during farming and processing, and the final product must be safe to eat. Sixteen insect-like species — house crickets among them — sit on a catalogued list under the Food Safety and Security (Catalogued Insect-like Species) Order 2025. Anything outside that list gets assessed case by case.

Step two: purging, killing and blanching

Before processing, crickets are typically fasted so the gut clears, then killed — usually by freezing — and blanched or heat-treated. The heat step is a food-safety step, not a flavour one: it reduces the microbial load that any raw animal biomass carries.

SFA is explicit that pre-packaged food containing insects must be labelled to indicate the true nature of the product, with non-compliance carrying a fine of up to $5,000. So if a Singapore snack contains cricket, the packet has to say so. You should never have to guess.

Step three: drying — where the numbers actually move

This is the step most people never think about, and it is the one with the clearest measurable effect.

A 2024 study in the Journal of Food Measurement and Characterization compared four drying methods — tray, oven, solar and freeze drying — across two cricket species including Acheta domesticus, the house cricket. Freeze drying took the longest to reach a safe water activity; oven drying was fastest. Nutritionally, tray drying and freeze drying came out comparable, and the authors concluded tray drying was the most suitable method for producing cricket powder from both species.

The composition ranges from that study are worth sitting with: protein came in at 59–70%, and fat at 9.71–25.35%. That fat range is not a rounding error. It is the difference between a powder that behaves like a lean protein ingredient and one that behaves like something closer to a nut flour.

An open-access study in Food Science and Technology Research found much the same picture: 60–70% protein by dry weight and 10–23% lipids, with all essential amino acids present and notable levels of phosphorus, sodium and calcium.

So no — cricket flour is not "pure protein"

This is the part the marketing usually skips. At roughly 60–70% protein and 10–25% fat, cricket powder is a whole-food ingredient, not a protein isolate. The remainder is chitin, minerals and moisture.

That composition has consequences in both directions. On the useful side, a 2018 review in Nutrition Research Reviews found that iron and zinc levels in edible insect species are similar to or higher than other animal-based foods, and that high protein content tends to track with high iron and zinc content.

On the less convenient side, the same review flagged that food preparation and processing methods affect mineral content, and that real knowledge gaps remain around how much of those minerals the human gut actually absorbs. Content and absorption are different questions, and the second one is less settled than most brands imply.

What this means when you're reading a packet

Three practical things.

Position in the ingredients list still rules. Ingredients are listed in descending order by weight in Singapore. If cricket powder appears seventh, it is a garnish, not a protein source, regardless of what the front of the pack suggests.

Check the nutrition panel, not the story. Because cricket powder itself ranges so widely in fat, the only reliable number is the one in the panel for the finished product.

"Contains insect protein" is a legal disclosure, not a health claim. It tells you what is in there. It tells you nothing about whether the product is good.

Where we sit

We use cricket powder in our baked brown-rice crackers because of what it contributes — protein quality, a fibre profile you do not get from rice alone, and a savoury depth that survives baking. We are not going to tell you it is a supplement in cracker form. It is a snack, made with an ingredient we think is genuinely interesting and worth the effort of sourcing properly.

If you would rather taste it than read about it, the Try-All 3-Pack is the low-commitment way in.

Sources

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