Saturday, December 14, 2019

Will Dog Food of the Future Be Made of Crickets?


Imagine feeding your dogs crickets or flies raised in a factory manned by robots.

“Pound for pound, crickets, and edible insects in general, offer the most bang for the planet’s resources. Crickets require just 1.5 pounds of feed for every pound of edible cricket product made. This ratio, known as the feed conversion rate, is far less impressive for other popular protein sources: 20 pounds of feed for every pound of beef, 4.5 pounds for every pound of chicken and 7.3 pounds for every pound of pork.”

While insect-based dog food is not (yet) available in the US due to AAFCO regulations, there are multiple insect-based pet foods sold in Europe, including Trovet, Insect Dog, Eat Small, Yora and Tomojo.

1 comment:

Jennifer said...

Only as a niche market. The dogfood industry is great for getting rid of unmarketable meat/skin/bone/gristle. Nothing new really. Domestication of dogs probably had a lot to do with wolves enjoying refuse from early humans. It's going to be hard to sell insect meal more cheaply than stuff the meat industry would otherwise have to pay to dispose of.