Innovation

When the ban on selling insects as food was lifted in Finland in the end of 2017, Fazer launched the first cricket bread in the world, Fazer Sirkkaleipä. The development process had already begun during the summer of 2017, and the development team consisted of specialists such as bakers, sourcing people and product developers. Fazer sees insects as the food of the future, which inspired it to come up with the innovation. A loaf of Fazer Sirkkaleipä contains 70 farmed house crickets, which are ground into powder and added to the flour. Crickets are an excellent substitute for meat, as they contain 70% of protein.

Crickets provide a more sustainable source of protein compared to meat production which has a huge negative impact on the environment and is one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Livestock farming causes suffering to animals living in confined living conditions. Moreover, reduction in meat consumption will lower the demand for grain and the prices will fall and grain becomes more affordable to the poor globally. Farming crickets puts less burden on the environment as the amount of feed, water and land required to grow crickets is considerably smaller. The farmed house crickets get to live in conditions mimicking their natural habitat and socialize in swarms. Additionally, the demand for insect-based food creates new job opportunities for farmers.

Inspiration

The mission of Fazer is to produce “food with purpose”. They have wanted to bring new, innovative products to the market all along. During the summer of 2017, Fazer came up with the idea to launch a bread baked with insect flour. Fazer made a video about people tasting insect food and posted it on Facebook. The video divided people’s opinions, some really liked it and were interested in insect food, some didn’t like it at all.

“This encouraged us, because typically this kind of polarized thinking means that you are on a trend. [...] That was the “kick” for the inspiration which then took on to become a product.” - Markus Hellström

Fazer was surprised how fast everything eventually happened. Using insects was not a long-term plan of theirs. At that time, insects as a food ingredient had not really been thought of in Finland. Legalizing the usage of insects as a food ingredient happened in a very short time-period. Therefore, Fazer too had only a couple of months to come up with the product.

“We did something called a very agile way of working. We created a small team of specialists, a startup within our own organization that then together started building the story. [...] We wanted to see it as a race. We set the bar high and said we wanted to be the first, and we were.” - Markus Hellström

Overall impact

The overall impact of Fazer Sirkkaleipä is to familiarize consumers with insect-based food and encourage people to consider their meat consumption and make more responsible choices. The innovation of Sirkkaleipä contributes to sustainable food production, which has a positive impact on environment and society. Fazer sees insects like crickets as the food of the future and considers them as a viable substitute to animal protein.

“It is a fairly small amount of input what you need in order to get the amount of protein compared to many others [...] it’s the food of the future” - Markus Hellström

The short-term effect of Sirkkaleipä for Fazer was that it got massive global media attention and it affected their brand reputation positively. The long-term effect of the innovation is to set an example for other companies to get inspired by insect-based food and develop sustainable options available to market.

Business benefit

Fazer Sirkkaleipä has been a great brand builder for Fazer. Fazer is a 1.6-billion-euro annual revenue company that has thousands of products. Thus, one product does not make that big of a difference in terms of revenue. In terms of reputation and setting the scene for the future, however, Sirkkaleipä has meant a lot to Fazer.

“It was a one-of-a-kind PR victory [...] which then turned out to be kind of a boom for the take-off of the bread in the stores. We sold out pretty much every day for quite a long time.” - Markus Hellström

After its launch, Sirkkaleipä received huge media attention, not only in Finland but also globally. Fazer received numerous consumer contacts and Sirkkaleipä was noted by all the major medias. The successful PR campaign led to an immediate boom in the sales and Sirkkaleipä was sold out in all the stores nearly every day for a long time. In July 2018 Sirkkaleipä placed third in the Sustainable Development Goals section of the world’s largest annual marketing competition, Cannes Lions, which enhanced the positive attention and Fazer’s image as a sustainable company even more.

In the footsteps of Sirkkaleipä, Fazer has recently launched another insect-based product. Sirkkasämpylät, cricket rolls, is similar to Sirkkaleipä but it is produced in a small industrial scale. The success of Sirkkaleipä has also encouraged Fazer to consider other new ingredients and potentially develop the concept of insect-based food even further in the future.

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Social and environmental benefit

Since 2013, the UN has been encouraging people to breed and consume insects due to their benefits to people and the environment. Because insects are high in protein, they are one of the potential replacements to meat. Compared to other livestock, farming insects requires only a fraction of the feed, water and land and produces much less pollution. In addition to the environmental benefits, Sirkkaleipä benefits the society by creating new opportunities to farmers, whose livelihood is in jeopardy due to the increasing competition in Finnish agriculture.

“When we started off with the cricket bread, we were contacted by numerous farmers who might have a spare barn somewhere which they could use for these purposes. [...] I think it boosted some inspiration and people became interested in new ways of doing farming.” - Markus Hellström

The crickets Fazer uses in Sirkkaleipä are bred in conditions that mimic their natural habitat. Growing on a cricket farm, they live in large swarms and have access to all the warmth, space and nutrition they need. It is important to Fazer that their suppliers are responsible, and the crickets used in Sirkkaleipä are bred in ethical conditions.

According to the UN, farming insects and producing insect-based products is “a way to address food and feed security”. Sirkkaleipä is contributing to changing the attitudes about insects as food and, therefore, helping to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal number 2: Zero hunger. By offering new opportunities to the farmers of Finland, Sirkkaleipä also works towards achieving goal number 8: Decent work & economic growth. Considering the environmental benefits of insect farming compared to meat production, Sirkkaleipä is also contributing to goals number 12 & 13: Responsible Consumption and Production & Climate Action.

Interview

Markus Hellström, Managing Director of Fazer Bakeries Finland