‘Insect bread’ ready for sale in Finland

Touted to be a first in the country

Flour ground from dried crickets, left, and crickets in jars.

One of Finland’s largest food companies is selling what it claims to be a first: insect bread.

Markus Hellstrom, head of the Fazer group’s bakery division, said that one loaf contains about 70 dried house crickets, ground into powder and added to the flour. The farm-raised crickets represent 3% of the bread’s weight, Mr. Hellstrom said.

According to recent surveys of the Nordic countries, “Finns have the most positive attitudes toward insects,” said Juhani Sibakov, head of Fazer Bakery Finland’s innovation department.

“We made crunchy dough to enhance taste,” he said. The result was “delicious and nutritious,” he said, adding that the bread “is a good source of protein and insects also contain good fatty acids and calcium.”