Things you may want to know

We proudly make insect-based healthy snacks. Our Cricket Cracker Bites are high in sustainable protein and are enriched with 15% cricket flour which massively boosts the protein content. Cricket flour also contains vital micronutrients, such as vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids. The other main ingredients are wheat flour and extra virgin olive oil, as well as a few more (100% natural) ingredients that give our products a distinctive taste (check out the Nutritional Information tab for each product) .

Our team has analysed over 1,000 savoury snacks products available in the market. On average, our Cracker Bites have 2x the protein and 1/2 the fat compared to other snacks. They also contain over 80% less sugar. And that’s not everything! Each Cracker Bites bag contains 50% of your recommended daily intake of Vitamin B12, which is highly recommended to boost your body’s defenses and can also improve your mood. Yes, Really. 🤩

We think the real question should be ‘why not eat crickets?’. Crickets are nutrient-dense, rich in complete protein, minerals, vitamins and essential fatty acids. The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) promotes eating insects because, besides being highly nutritious, they have an extremely low environmental footprint. Farming insects requires only a tiny fraction of all the natural resources needed to produce traditional protein sources. Switch on your antennas – crickets taste amazing!
Yes, we could say that they are an almost perfect source of sustainable protein. They require drastically less land, water, feed and energy than traditional protein sources and that’s really important if you don’t want to wave your kids off to a new life on Mars. According to FAO, the world population will reach 9 billion by 2050 and meat consumption will double by then. Currently, a third of the world’s land is already used to satisfy our demand for meat.  Additionally, livestock industries are the second highest cause of atmospheric pollution. Check the facts! We need to find alternative sources of sustainable protein and we need them now! Crickets are the most promising one and Small Giant snacks are the way to fall in love with them!

Crickets are a complete protein source, containing all the essential amino acids – the building blocks of protein that we can only get from food. They have up to 70% protein content which is about two to three times higher than red meat. Compare that to some other traditional source of protein – chicken breast has 31%, salmon 20%, boiled soybean 17%. Crickets are also a source of vitamins, minerals, fatty acids and fibre and so they’re ideal for a balanced diet. Vitamin B12 is fundamental for your immune system to thrive and crickets have more than 100% of your recommended daily intake of Vitamin B12 per serve.
They also contain as much calcium as milk, making them the perfect non-dairy source of calcium. This is what a superfood looks like to me!

Amino acids are the blocks that make up all proteins. 9 of them cannot be made by our body and must come from food. Crickets, as an alternative animal protein, contain all 9 essential amino acids making them a ‘complete protein’ source. Incomplete proteins tend to be plant-based. This doesn’t mean that having a vegetarian diet is unhealthy but that incomplete proteins should be combined within a day or a single meal to ensure that all essential amino acids are included in your diet.

Reducing traditional meat and dairy in your diet is the single most impactful way to reduce your carbon footprint as an individual, more than biking every day or quitting plastic. As Small Giants, we stand for a mainly vegetarian diet that does not necessarily exclude all animal-based products. What we really need is to drastically reduce our overconsumption of traditional animal-based foods and to integrate the diet with protein-rich alternatives – plants but also other highly sustainable alternatives such as crickets! Crickets are nutrient-dense, rich in complete protein, minerals, vitamins, and essential fatty acids, and have an extremely low environmental footprint. If cattle were a country, they would rank third in greenhouse gas emissions competing with the United States for the second place ¹. 77% of agricultural land is used for livestock and feeding livestock while only 17% of global caloric consumption comes from animals ². Isn’t it insane? Cattle already have a dreadful impact and if the demand will continue to rise at this rate we won’t keep pace with it. Edible insects are not the silver bullet but they surely could be a part of the solution.

Our cracker bites are made to be eaten whenever you fancy, they’re perfect on the go, great with a dip or you can incorporate them into your meal – crumble them over soup or salad for an extra protein boost – it’s up to you! We’ve also heard they pair wonderfully with a glass of wine 😉 If you’d like some more inspiration, head over to our Instagram page – we share lots of recipes and pairing suggestions because we’re just that nice!

There is not a single answer, the topic is delicate and there are different opinions. A very simple answer could be: ‘No’. Vegetarians don’t eat animals, insects are technically animals so vegetarians don’t eat insects. But for those vegetarians who have chosen to avoid meat to reduce their environmental footprint the answer is ‘Yes!’. Bugs are way more sustainable than livestock, so they’re a perfect low-impact alternative to traditional protein.

So, if you dream of a world where 7.6 billion people would become vegans, bugs are not the solution, but if you believe that is simply unrealistic then they should be part of our future. What complicates even further the answer is also that several studies have clearly shown that insects don’t feel pain and that thousands of insects are killed by pesticides used for in agriculture.

The insect nervous system is very different from that of higher-order animals. They lack the neurological structures responsible for translating negative stimuli (as of injuries) into emotional experiences. Insects also don’t show pain responses, for examples insects with crushed abdomens continue to feed and mate. On top of that, farmed crickets are put in freezers where they go into their natural state of diapause (similar to hibernation) which stops all their nervous system activities.

Eating insects is nothing new in many parts of the world. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that insects are part of the regular diet of roughly two billion people globally. Edible insects have long been a part of Thailand’s traditional cuisine, so it’s not surprising that insect farming is widely spread there. Crickets also need high temperatures (ideally 30°C) to live and Thailand’s climate provides the ideal conditions.

Recent studies have shown that the global warming potential of insects farmed in Thailand (and then transported in Europe) is lower compared to insects farmed in Europe.

We source our cricket powder from a British professional supplier that is the only BRC certified cricket powder supplier worldwide. Its crickets are guaranteed for human consumption and farmed in Thailand. The farming of crickets and all the steps involved in the production take place in a controlled environment in order to obtain the best quality flours. Crickets are used to living in dense conditions, can be farmed vertically, and can be reared on bio-waste transforming it into high-quality protein.

Most of the cricket farms in Thailand are small family-owned businesses This means that sourcing from them you support the rural farming communities and help them to build a more prosperous life for their families.

Type: House Cricket (Acheta Domesticus)
Ideal temperature: 30°C
Lifecycle: 4 weeks in optimal conditions
Diet: mixed (gluten-free) grains and vegetables.

People who are allergic to crustacean shellfish may also be allergic to crickets

There are no known cases of transmission of diseases or parasitoids to humans from the consumption of insects (on the condition that the insects are handled under the same sanitary conditions as any other food). Allergies may occur, however, that are comparable with allergies to crustaceans, which are also invertebrates. Compared to mammals and birds, insects may pose less risk of transmitting zoonotic infections to humans.

Source: FAO

We are Europe’s first insect-based brand to go Plastic Neutral. By going Plastic Neutral with rePurpose Global, we’re funding the removal and reuse of the same amount of plastic from nature that we use in our packaging. With Plastic Neutrality, we are proud to offer our products with a Net Zero Plastic Footprint. Explore our impact! 

Our products contain extra virgin olive oil and a compostable alternative that can handle a product like ours simply doesn’t exist. That’s why our packaging is Plastic Neutral but not plastic-free. Since we couldn’t directly change the way we pack our products, we decided to tackle the problem from another angle. Small Giants is now certified Plastic Neutral by rePurpose Global meaning that removing and recovering as much plastic waste from nature as we use. The problem with plastics doesn’t lie in the material itself, but in the way we manage it. When disposed, recycled, or offset responsibly, the material proves to be much lighter on the environment than any other mainstream alternatives such as glass or tin. Discover more about our Plastic Neutral journey

Small Giants is now certified Plastic Neutral by rePurpose Global. We have partnered with rePurpose Global to fund the collection, processing, and recovery of as much nature-bound plastic waste as we use across our packaging and operations. By taking this bold commitment, every Small Giants purchase carries a Net Zero Plastic Footprint. Through the partnership with rePurpose Global, we are supporting vetted waste management social enterprise Carpe in Maharashtra (India) to collect and process hard-to-recycle waste streams otherwise too low value to be reclaimed from the environment, such as chocolate wrappers, chips packets, and similar flexible packaging items. Explore our impact