Roberts Bakery featured on TV show Blue Peter yesterday (27 February) thanks to the brand’s insect bread.

Unveiled last year, each Crunchy Cricket Loaf contains around 336 crickets that are dried, ground, mixed with wheat flour and grains and baked to become a “tremendously tasty loaf with a crunchy finish”.

The creation secured the bakery plenty of media interest, and Blue Peter presenter Ritchie Driss recently visited Roberts’ R&D centre, called The Exploratory, to look at how the insect bread is made.

He was met by Roberts’ innovation head Alison Ordonez and the bakery’s NPD team, who also visited the main production plant to find out more about Roberts’ sustainability activity.

“As well as having very strong sustainability and environmental credentials, insects are also seriously tasty,” said Ordonez. “This makes them an increasingly popular choice amongst those who want to protect the environment as farming insects uses less land, water and feed than conventional livestock farming. And being a good source of protein, cricket flour ticks the health box too.”

“We’re delighted that interest in our cricket loaf continues, as it does for our wider sustainability stance and innovative pipeline of new products.”

Robert’s Crunchy Cricket Loaf was among the innovations highlighted in a British Baker feature on the use of insect-based flour in baked goods.