Depending on your family and schedule, summers are typically jam packed with family events, concerts, hikes, camping trips, rafting adventures, and more as we take in the amazing weather.  However, this summer our Cricket Flours team added a little more to our plate when we decided to participate in the Portland State University’s Clean Tech Challenge.  It was worth it!

Cricket Flours Clean Tech Challenge

A few months back, over 30+ companies applied to take part in the Clean Tech Challenge to receive a small grant to work on researching and prototyping a clean technology.  Because our founder was a recent graduate of the University of Oregon graduate program, we were able to apply and were accepted into the program.  The program is designed to form groups working on clean technologies and provide guidance, advisors, and some funding to work on bringing new ideas into the market.  Each team had 90-days to design, develop and then present their new clean technology ideas at the Clean Tech Challenge, a three-day event that coincides with Oregon Best.

Cricket Flours Founder on KGW Channel 8

Cricket Flour DoughnutsTo watch the news story covered by Keely Chalmers and KGW Channel 8 on the Clean Tech Challenge and our cricket doughnuts, check out our video post here: https://www.cricketflours.com/clean-tech-challenge-cricket-doughnuts/

At the final event, we demoed at our booth and presented numerous times talking about the sustainability of edible insects and our new production design for processing crickets using new novel techniques for commercial applications.  After 90-days of researching and prototyping, 3-days of presenting, we won the Grand Prize for our ento food group concept and prototype and still excited about what this means going forward.  (In fact the Portland Business Journal also covered the story that you read about here: https://www.cricketflours.com/portland-business-journal-clean-tech-challenge/)

At the event we also partnered with two different local Oregon companies to create new products using some of our cricket flour and cricket protein powder in new ways.  Voodoo Doughnuts and Sesame Donuts took our cricket powder into their shops and crafted two brand new doughnut flavors especially for us and for our event.  Voodoo Doughnuts created a Bavarian Cricket Cream Doughnut with rice crispies, roasted crickets, and a peanut butter drizzle on top with chocolate icing, and then a cricket powder infused Bavarian cream filling.  With Sesame Donuts we wanted to use the powder as a topping and created a Vanilla Caked Cricket Doughnut that you can seen in the photo.  Both were amazing, and thank you once again for everyone that was able to come out and try the new products!

Ento Food Group