What is the difference between insect powder and insect flour?

Insect powder? Insect flour? Flour or powder? It makes your head spin! But what is the difference? To answer the question, JIMINI’S conducted an investigation.

What is flour?

Flour is obtained by grinding agricultural products, such as wheat, spelt, rye, barley… This flour is the basis for numerous food preparations around the globe. You find it in your favorite chocolate cakes, in crepe batter, or in a roux, that binding agent used for delicious sauces like béchamel.

There are many types of flour, depending on their maturation or composition (with or without germ and bran, for example, to make whole wheat flour).

According to the CNRTL (French National Centre for Textual and Lexical Resources), flour has several definitions:

Fine powder obtained from grinding cereal grains
Powder obtained from bones, meat, or dried fish.

Powder? Flour? Flour? Powder? Is there a real difference? In fact, by definition, flour is a powder, but not all powders are flour.

So why do we say insect powder and not insect flour?

Very good question! Thank you for asking. In reality, we could call this powder obtained after grinding insects “insect flour,” but we did not want people to think that this powder has the same properties as wheat flour. Wheat flour, for example, allows the dough to rise during cooking and gives texture to the batter thanks to gluten.

It is for this simple reason that JIMINI’S uses the term “insect powder” rather than “insect flour.”

Well! If only I had known! But then, is there gluten in your insect powder?

Gluten is present in wheat, rye, oats, barley, kamut, and spelt. So when you add insect powder to your preparation, you boost the protein and fiber content without adding gluten. Note that some JIMINI’S products do contain gluten, such as our pasta made from wheat flour.

You will love adding insect powder to your culinary creations. Besides improving nutritional values, it gives your dishes a delicious hazelnut flavor. We are crazy about it!

We hope we have shed some light on this delightful topic, and of course nothing stops you from singing “Meunier tu dors” while enjoying insect pasta.