The house cricket is an
edible insect. It is farmed in South-East Asia and parts of Europe and North America for
human consumption. In Asia, it is said to become more popular than many native cricket species due to what consumers claimed was their superior taste and texture.
Dry-roasting is common and is considered the most nutritious method of preparing them, though they are often sold
deep-fried as well. Farmed house crickets are mostly freeze-dried and often processed into a powder known as
cricket flour. In Europe, the house cricket is officially approved for use in food products in
Switzerland (since 2017) and in the
European Union member states (since 2022). In the EU, the house cricket was approved as novel food in frozen, dried and powdered forms with the
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/188 of 10 February 2022. Before that, the
European Food Safety Authority had published a safety assessment on August 17, 2021, stating that frozen and dried formulations from whole house crickets are safe for consumption. Despite these developments, large-scale industrial production of house crickets remains challenging. In North America, Aspire Food Group opened the world’s largest cricket processing facility in London, Ontario, in 2022 with a capacity of 13 million kilograms annually. However, despite government support, the company faced financial difficulties and had to sell its assets in 2025 due to high debt, illustrating some of the economic and logistical challenges of scaling insect farming for human consumption.
Nutritional value House crickets are an incomplete protein source, deficient in tryptophan and lysine. They contain both
omega-3 and
omega-6 fatty acids. Despite their nutritional value, insects such as house crickets are not widely accepted as food in Western countries. Surveys have found that while many people are willing to try plant-based meat substitutes, only a small proportion would consider eating insects. == Genome ==