Hargol FoodTech launches Biblical Protein in the US

  • 25 June 2020
  • Protein
“Follow John the Baptist’s nutrition” is the marketing message of Hargol’s range of energy bars and ready-to-eat locust

By Murielle Gonzalez

Hargol Biblical Protein
“Follow John the Baptist’s nutrition,” reads the Biblical Protein marketing campaign

Grasshoppers, honey and fruits are the key ingredients of Biblical Protein, the first consumer product range by Hargol FoodTech, the Israeli start-up operating the world’s first mass-produced locust farming.

The Biblical Protein range includes energy bars, ready-to-eat locust jar, and ready-to-eat locust jar and honey.

Hargol, headquartered in the northern city of Misgav, sources protein from grasshoppers farmed in a 1,000 sqm site plus four small-scale facilities the company operates across the region.

The protein is then turned into powder and sold to supplements and meat replacement manufacturers. The company also sells the whole grasshopper, dried and ready to eat, to food companies and restaurants.

Biblical protein for a niche audience

A strategic launch, Dror Tamir, Hargol chief executive, told NutritionInvestor that Biblical Protein has been launched in the US to target the 18 million Christians in the country.

“Grasshoppers are biblical food, mentioned in the Coran and the Bible as being kosher and halal. John the Baptist used to eat grasshoppers with honey,” he explained.

The Biblical Protein is just one of a handful of projects on the table that will see the company’s sustainable protein hit the shelves on a global scale.

Tamir is bullish on the sustentability and efficiency the company offers to the market. He said Hargol’s grasshopper farming operation is at least 20 times more efficient than producing one pound of beef, and water consumption is 1,000 times less than livestock production.

“Land use is 1,500 times less because we grow vertically, and we use 100% of the animal,” he says, adding grasshoppers are fed with hydroponically grown wheatgrass, which is also sustainable. 

Hargol has raised $5 million in funding from three rounds. The company is in the portfolio of the Trendlines, an incubator for early-stage ‘agtech’ start-ups in Israel. Other investors include Sirius Ventures of Singapore and Dutch firm SLJ investment, WeWork, and Agriline, the fund of Vincent Tchenguiz, Trendlines’ controlling shareholder.