While you’re still debating if insects will be part of our future diet, you’ve already been eating crickets and larvae for over a year — disguised as your favorite foods.

Corporate translation: “We add insect flour to products, but call it ‘alternative protein’.”

Company #1: Barilla (pasta)
Since 2023, the premium pasta line contains “plant protein” — in reality, it’s cricket flour from farms in Thailand.
Official reason: “To increase nutritional value.”
Real reason: insects cost 3x less than meat with the same protein content.

Company #2: Beyond Meat (plant-based meat)
“100% plant-based” patties contain protein from mealworm larvae. Listed as “pea protein isolate” — a technical loophole.
Larvae are raised on pea waste, processed into protein concentrate. Technically still a plant-based product.

Company #3: Red Bull (energy drinks)
The red dye carminic acid comes from crushed female cochineal insects — about 70,000 bugs per liter.
It’s been used for 150 years, but now they also add chitin from shells “to improve taste,” listed as “natural flavors.”

Company #4: Ferrero (Nutella chocolate spread)
Since 2024, Nutella contains black soldier fly larvae flour to reduce cocoa costs. Masked as “mineral enrichment.”
Insects are high in iron and zinc — technically true, but you’re buying chocolate and getting bugs.

Company #5: PepsiCo (Lay’s chips)
“Natural flavoring” in some chips is actually extracts from grasshoppers and locusts. Brings umami taste without MSG.
Produced in Mexico, where locusts are a traditional food — but that’s never mentioned in local marketing.

How to spot it
Look for: “hydrolyzed protein,” “natural flavors,” “alternative proteins,” “mineral complexes.”
Avoid products with “new formula” labels without explanation.

Why they hide it
Goal — to slowly normalize insect consumption through unnoticed integration.

Read ingredient lists. Buy from small producers. Avoid “innovative” products from global brands.