Grillas (Tokushima City), a company that cultivates and processes edible crickets, has ceased operations and filed for bankruptcy with the Tokushima District Court. The amount of debt is approximately 150 million yen. The company has used dried cricket powder to develop sweets, bread, seasonings, and other products. When a high school in Tokushima Prefecture started serving school lunches containing the powder in the 2022 academic year, it faced a flood of criticism online and its business performance deteriorated. It was founded in 2019 by Takahito Watanabe, who studies the developmental mechanisms of crickets at Tokushima University, and his colleagues. In 2020, the powder was adopted in MUJI rice crackers, attracting attention, and in 2021 the company launched its own brand. The company’s declining performance was triggered by a high school in the prefecture starting to use the powder in its school lunches. Lessons were held on food crises and eating insects, and warnings were given about shellfish allergies, with the food being made available only to those who requested it. However, people reacted to the news by repeatedly expressing their disgust for eating insects and criticizing their safety online, and business deals fell through one after another. November 21, 2024, 17:15, Nihon Keizai Shimbun.
>>3 This is the company where Taro Kono ate Taro Kono tastes crickets and says they were “delicious” at a venture company presentation www.asahi.com/articles/asq2n6tscq2mptlc00x.html Taro Kono tasting dried crickets with mixed nuts = 2:22 pm, February 19, 2022, Tokushima City Takahito Watanabe, CEO of Grillas, which cultivates edible crickets and assistant professor at Tokushima University, spoke of his confidence in the know-how he has built up, saying, “What controls the deliciousness is the food and how we raise them.” Taro Kono, who previously served as Minister of State for Regulatory Reform, participated as a guest and commented, “I feel that the country’s rules need to be flexible so that they can be adapted to the new generation as they start new things.” He also tried mixed nuts and dried crickets seasoned with cricket extract, salt and pepper, and said, “They were delicious. There was no resistance, just straight forward.”
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