Big food firms eye insect protein
- Food companies including PepsiCo and ADM are exploring insect proteins like cricket and worm meals for snacks. - Analysts project the insect‑protein-snack opportunity could reach roughly $4.6 billion by 2027. - The push comes despite lingering safety and regulatory questions, signaling manufacturers are hunting novel high‑protein inputs for future products (x.com, x.com).
Big food manufacturers are testing whether insect protein can move from niche bars and powders into mainstream packaged snacks. (adm.com) Archer-Daniels-Midland, the grain trader and ingredients supplier better known as ADM, opened a North American Insect Innovation Center with Innovafeed in Decatur, Illinois, on April 18, 2024 to scale up insect-protein production in the United States. The site uses black soldier flies and is tied by pipeline to ADM’s wet mill to recover up to 300,000 tons a year of by-products. (adm.com) PepsiCo has not announced an insect-based snack line, but its 2026 product pipeline shows how aggressively it is chasing protein snacks. The company this year introduced Good Warrior, a new PepsiCo Foods protein-snack brand, alongside bottled Starbucks Coffee & Protein drinks in retail. (pepsico.com) The pitch is simple: insects can be dried, milled into meal, and blended into bars, chips, or baked snacks much like other protein flours. The Food and Agriculture Organization says edible insects provide high-quality protein, vitamins and amino acids, and that crickets need six times less feed than cattle to produce the same amount of protein. (fao.org) That has turned insect protein into a supply-chain story as much as a food trend. A May 2024 market report distributed by Research and Markets said the broader edible-insects market could reach $17.9 billion by 2033, with protein bars, shakes, bakery, confectionery and beverages among the target uses. (researchandmarkets.com) Regulators are moving unevenly. The European Commission said on January 20, 2025 that it authorized UV-treated powder made from whole yellow mealworm larvae as a novel food ingredient, adding to earlier approvals covering house cricket, migratory locust and lesser mealworm products. (ec.europa.eu) In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration does not list insects among the nine major allergens, but it says companies must list ingredients on packaged foods and manage allergen hazards and cross-contact. The agency also finalized updated food-allergen labeling guidance on January 6, 2025 and held a public meeting on allergen thresholds in February 2026. (fda.gov) Safety and consumer acceptance remain the hard parts. The same 2024 edible-insects market report cited allergy risk, weak regulatory standardization, psychological resistance and production scale as restraints on growth. (researchandmarkets.com) For now, the biggest companies appear to be building options rather than betting the aisle on crickets or mealworms. If insect protein reaches mass-market snacks, it will likely arrive first as another flour in the ingredient list, not as a whole bug on the front of the pack. (adm.com)
