Interview to Francesco Majno of Crickè
Francesco Majno (on the left side of the picture), is co-founder of Crickè and has answered to our questions about the adventure of what is for sure one of the most interesting Italian startups dealing with food innovation. To discover more about this intriguing company, visit the website https://www.crickefood.com/.
Q: Good morning Francesco and thank you for giving us some minutes of your time to reply to these brief questions. We think Crickè is a company which has ideas and values similar to those of Bivo, and for this reason we are glad to have the opportunity to know more about your project. Tell us something about you, your background and the professional experiences you had before Crickè.
Francesco: After graduating in Communication Design at the Politecnico of Milan, I have worked as an information designer first in the Milan based agency Accurat, then as a freelancer. From data visualization to designing projects with social impact, from Milan to Turin, the second chapter of my professional life has been SocialFare – Centre for Social Innovation. In Turin we have also created the group of friends which some years after would have launched the Crickè project – the project which has become a company in London.
Q: How the idea of Crickè was born? Can you tell us a particular episode that you remember when you think about your adventure?
Francesco: The project was born from chit-chatting with friends in Sempione park in Milan. Edoardo and me started to think about how could be possible that more than two billion people in the World are regularly eating insects, while for us in the Western World, this is still considered a taboo. The topic was so fascinating because it touches so many themes: food culture, nutrition, environmental sustainability, circular economy… Reading the document of FAO Edible Insects-Future prospects for food and feed security we discovered that insects are a remarkably low-impact food. We enjoyed to imagine how to be able to spread this culture in our society. In this way the Crickelle were born – crackers made with cricket flour, which quickly conquered the approval of the people we got in contact with while organizing events for the presentation of the product. Among the episodes that I like to remember more for sure there is our participation to Terra Madre and Salone del Gusto of Turin 2016 and the Maker Faire of Rome 2017. The great curiosity and enthusiasm surrounding the project by hundreds of people made those events truly unforgettable!
Q: What did you find most fascinating about crickets in particular? Do you think you will move the perimeter of your activity in order to involve other insects, or you will focus always on crickets?
Francesco: Crickets are an unique food for three different reasons. They are extremely nutritious with a great balance between macronutrients and a high content of protein – until 70% of the dry weight, vitamins (B12) and minerals (iron, potassium, calcium and magnesium). If you transform the cricket into flour you can also use this ingredient for many different types of food, because it is extremely versatile, both for salty and sweet dishes. Using wheat flour and toasted sesame the Crickelle were born – crackers with cricket flour; oat flour and honey for the Crickè biscuits; chickpea flour and rosemary for the chips – crispy and irresistible! The third reason (not in order of importance) is environmental sustainability. Farming crickets requires only a small fraction of the natural resources needed to produce meat. Water, land, feed, green house gasses emissions reduced by 100 times. Hereby you can find an in-depth analysis. For now we just focus on crickets, but in the future we would like to experiment with mealworms and sago worms.
Q: We imagine that dealing with such an innovative topic is not easy, also from a bureaucratic perspective. Tell us a little about what difficulties you have encountered, in Italy in particular but not only here, and how you managed to overcome them.
Francesco: Having founded the company in England the main difficulties we found were in the UK. The main problem was the regulatory framework, because the product was too innovative for the existing laws. We also find ourselves in a transition period between the old and the new European regulation on the topic of novel food and this helps complicating things. The secret is about being patient, being sure of our reasons and being able to explain them clearly.
Q: What are your future projects? We imagine that you have many things in your mind, can you tell us some details about where you envision Crickè in the future?
Francesco: In Europe a true and proper market test of how much consumers like this kind of products has never been made. The launch of insect based food products in more than 300 Spanish Carrefour super market will be the first real test. And the reaction will be valuable also for us. Our aim is to consolidate the success of our first product, the Crickelle, for being able to launch the pasta and cookies with cricket flour. Crackers are snacks thought for a wide audience, from curious people to enthusiasts, from athletes to food lovers; with other future products we would like to build a more specific story telling. Our main effort currently lies in imagining communication forms which can be able to be effective simultaneously at different levels. As I said, insects as new food in the Western World touch so many themes; the interest of people is moved first by curiosity, then by the desire to study more this topic. Every time a new food product has been launched into the market, the real challenge has been – after the first barrier of mistrust – to present them in a way that could make them part of the normal diet, and not as a fad. Tomatoes, potatoes, coffee, cocoa have been for us novel foods. And I think they made it!
