Ikea’s in-store cafes have grown in popularity so much so that an estimated 30% of store visits are made just to dine there. The Swedish retailer has already opened pop-up restaurants in London, Paris and Oslo, and is reportedly considering rolling out stand-alone cafes in major cities around the world. The company is increasingly focusing on food culture and sustainability, so including insect protein producer Flying SpArk in the inaugural Ikea Bootcamp startup accelerator seems like a natural fit.###Still, Western consumers tend to bug out about eating insects, even processed ones. So while insect-based protein is a growing trend, there’s likely a long haul before it becomes a mainstream ingredient in food mferrous fumarate and vitamin canufacturing. Some food companies working with insects have tried to normalize insect consumption by processing crickets, mealworms or locusts into flours before using them to boost protein in familiar products such as bars and brownies. Brooklyn, New York-based Exo and Salt Lake City-based Chapul are two of only about 25 U.S. and Canadian food manufacturers currently using cricket powder in food products.###But perhaps a partnership with Ikea — such as the one being forged with Flying SpArk — could help overcome consumer fears about this new protein, potentially kick-starting wider acceptance of “insects as ingredients” across the globe. Exotic food profiles are a popular food trend right now, which plays perfectly into Ikea’s existing offerings, like gravlax salmon and lingonberry jam.###Sustainability and transparency are also important to consumers. Study after study has confirmed that insects are highly nutritious, abundantly available and require scant resources to produce. With the world’s population expected to increase by an additional 2 billion people over the next 30 years, insects may be the best way to efficienferrous fumarate 324 mgtly feed everyone.###“We get a lot of interest from consumers as ferrous fumarate 210mg tablets benefitswell as from food companies that are looking for alternative and affordable protein sources,” Yoram Yerushalmi, Ph.D. and co-founder of Flying SpArk, told Food Ingredients First. Yerushalmi said that the company already has created a iron gluconate solubilityfew food applications, such as nuggets, pastry, pasta, a milk-like drink, a tofu-like item, health bars, cookies and meatballs. As any Ikea cafe aficionado can attest, meatballs are an espemolar mass of na fe edta .3h2ocially big business for Ikea — so the retailer could be onto something.
Insect protein startup Flying SpArk selected for Ikea incubator
