FAQ

• Simply-Bugs Balls: celery, wheat flour, wheat bran, eggs, oat fibre
• Simply-Bugs Burger: wheat flour, eggs

Ingredients: Mealworm* **(Tenebrio molitor) 17%, vegetables in variable proportions (carrots, leeks, celery) 16%, breadcrumbs (wheat flour, wheat bran, yeast), chickpea flour 9%, water, rapeseed oil, wheat starch, onion, sunflower oil, whole egg, oat fibre, garlic powder, salt, orange peel, cane sugar, spices, herbs.

*If you have a crustacean, mollusc or dust mite allergy there is also the possibility of an allergy to edible insects.

**EU origin

*If you have a crustacean, mollusc or dust mite allergy there is also the possibility of an allergy to edible insects.

**Origin EU

The balls are pre-fried and easy to prepare at home in the oven (180 °C fan oven, 6-8 minutes), frying pan (medium heat, 2-3 minutes) or fryer (180 °C, 3-4 minutes). We recommend different dips (yoghurt-fig dip, yoghurt-mint dip, yoghurt-herb dip) or a sweet chili sauce. Pop-Bugs Balls are perfect as a snack with an aperitif and at events. But they are also a tasty component as a main course in a salad or wrap.

Insects are a promising and sustainably produced animal protein source for humans.

Insects

• are nutritious and can provide the human body with important proteins, fats and minerals,
• have a high feed conversion rate – that is, they need relatively little food to gain 1 kg of weight,
• need less farmland for rearing compared to conventional livestock,
• have a better carbon footprint than other species. So, insects produce less greenhouse gases,
• and need significantly less water than other species.

In the EU, insects are subject to the Novel Food Regulation. Applications for approval for various insect species have been submitted. In a transitional phase, products that were on the market before the 1st of January 2018 and for which a novel food application was submitted by the 1st of January 2019 may continue to be offered. This is the case with our Simply-Bugs.

In Switzerland, however, three species of insects have been authorised for use as food since the 1st of May 2017:

Tenebrio molitor, larval stage (mealworm)

Acheta domesticus, adult form (cricket)

Locusta migratoria, adult form (European migratory locust)

As with all foods, there are microbial guideline values which the insect products must meet. By controlling ingredients and end products, we can guarantee that Simply-Bugs products are of high quality and microbiologically safe.

• From the eggs, the larvae hatch, colloquially these are also called mealworms.
• After a period of growth, the larvae pupate themselves.Inside the pupae the beetles develop.
• After hatching, the beetles mate. The female lays eggs…
• …and the cycle begins again.

The most common method of slaughter is freezing. The special thing about insects is that they are cold-blooded animals: when they freeze, they fall into a kind of “hibernation” in which the insects are first anaesthetised and then die.