Micarna presented its innovative pop bugs for the first time at Anuga 2017, the pop bugs are small balls, which are made from cricket flour as a protein source. They are similar to breaded meatballs, except in pop bugs cricket flour is used instead of meat.

"As a Swiss meat producer, we were thinking for the future what kind of alternative protein could we use," says Micarna product manager, Ralph Langholz. "That's when we came to the topic of insects and there was a lot of discussion about sustainability as insects don't need a lot of space for rearing, they have a better CO2 footprint than other animals.

"These are some of the reasons why we decided to launch this product with cricket flour."