Table of Contents
About Exo Protein
Have you ever looked at a cricket and thought, “You must be good at something besides chirping?” Exo Protein has, and so has over 80% of the global population. They’ve realized the nutritional benefits of crickets as a protein source.
This American company uses cricket-based protein to make powders, cookies, and protein bars that can fuel you for the entire day. Their vision has been covered by The New York Times, Wired, Men’s Fitness, and other publications.
Exo Protein currently has over 13.3k Instagram followers. That number may make you curious to discover what all the buzz is about. That’s what you’ll learn by reading my Exo Protein review, where I’ll cover their history, the benefits of cricket protein, the brand’s products, and more.
Overview of Exo Protein
Exo Protein struck gold with a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2016, but their vision began years before then. Gabi Lewis and Greg Sewitz conceived the idea in 2013 after conducting research on cricket protein and seeing how beneficial it could be for both people and the planet.
They began working with a chef from the Fat Duck to develop recipes and improve their product’s flavor without sacrificing quality. In 2016, they raised over $55k on Kickstarter, surpassing their initial goal and proving that people were hungry for a better protein source.
The company harvests and processes all their crickets at their Austin, Texas facility. Crickets, which are referred to as Acheta by Exo Protein, are much more sustainable than other forms of animal protein.
Acheta uses 99% less water than beef for feeding, produces marginally fewer greenhouse gases during processing than whey protein, and doesn’t need huge farms or massive fields to grow because, surprise, crickets are pretty small.
They’re also a complete protein source containing all the essential amino acids and have a higher protein density than chicken, beef, and eggs.
That’s just the Exo Protein’s exoskeleton, if you will; their outside shell. In the next section of this Exo Protein review, I’ll crack open that shell to see what’s inside the company and what makes them a unique entity in their marketspace.
Highlights
- Use Acheta protein powder to make supplements and snacks
- Free shipping on US orders over $50
- Acheta is a more sustainable and higher density protein source than most meats
- 2-week risk-free trial period
- Some products are dairy- and gluten-free
Exo Protein uses cricket flour to make protein bars, protein cookies, breakfast bars, and protein powders.
Exo Protein Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Protein Bars 12 Count Review
The first item I’ll cover in this Exo Protein review is the brand’s most popular protein bar. The Exo Protein Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Protein Bars 12 Count are a delicious all-natural snack that costs $30 for a single purchase.
Ingredients Label
The Exo Protein Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Protein Bars 12 Count derive their flavors from natural ingredients like peanut butter, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and non-caloric sweeteners like allulose and monk fruit.
On the protein side of the equation, the Exo Protein Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Protein Bars 12 Count uses the brand’s famous Acheta protein blend, pea protein, and egg whites.
Nutritional Value
A single 50g bar provides these macronutrients amounts;
- 14 grams of protein
- 21 grams of carbs, with 2 grams of fiber and 2 grams of sugar
- 8 grams of fat, with almost 2 grams of saturated fat
One serving of an Exo Protein Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Protein Bars 12 Count delivers a quarter of the RDI of Vitamin B12. This amounts to a bar that’s only 170 calories per serving.
Benefits
The benefits of taking this protein bar regularly are related to a higher protein intake. People who eat more protein reportedly feel more satisfied, have fewer cravings, and have a more increased muscle growing potential than those that do not.
The Exo Protein Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Protein Bars 12 Count’s Acheta protein blend has a few additional health benefits.
Its high vitamin B12 content can help provide energy to keep you moving throughout the day. It also has more potassium than whey protein, which is integral in maintaining proper intracellular fluid levels and blood pressure.
Each protein bar delivers a heaping of all 9 essential amino acids necessary for muscular development.
Finally, the Exo Protein Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Protein Bars 12 Count contains prebiotic chitin, which can help improve gut health. And as anyone with a regular bowel movement schedule will tell you, a healthy belly is a happy belly.
How Does It Work
There’s no rocket science behind the Exo Protein Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Protein Bars 12 Count. Think of it as you would any other high-protein food item. It can simply supply your body with the calories, macronutrients, and vitamins necessary to help it move, perform, and repair itself.
How to Take & Dosage
There’s even less science behind how to take one of these protein bars. I hope that by now, you understand how to bite, chew, and swallow your food, and if not, then you’ve got plenty to work on before you even step foot in the gym.
Since the Exo Protein Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Protein Bars 12 Count is just a food product, you can eat as many as you’d like without feeling any adverse side effects.
Exo Protein Acheta Cricket Powder 1 Pound Review
The next item I’ll highlight in this Exo Protein review is a solid pound of the brand’s protein powder, distilled to be as easy to ingest as possible. One order of this item costs $39.
Ingredients Label
The Exo Protein Acheta Cricket Powder 1 Pound has a sparse ingredients list. Cricket protein is the only listed ingredient, although the product description mentions that it has a cocoa and cashew flavor. However, I wasn’t able to see which ingredients instilled that flavor.
Nutritional Value
One 10 gram serving of Exo Protein Acheta Cricket Powder 1 Pound provides these macronutrient values;
- 6 grams of protein
- Less than 1 gram of carbohydrates, all of which are fiber
- 2.5 grams of fat
It also delivers 80% of the RDI for Vitamin B12, 25% of the riboflavin RDI, and 20% of the RDI of biotin.
Each serving only contains 50 calories.
Benefits
The benefits of ingesting Exo Protein Acheta Cricket Powder 1 Pound mostly come down to the fact that you’ll be getting more protein in your diet. As I mentioned earlier in this Exo Protein review, a higher protein diet can lead to a multitude of positive health effects.
However, this item benefits the planet at large. Exo Protein farms all their crickets at their farm in Austin, Texas. Crickets – and insects in general – are a much more sustainable protein source than large mammals or other typical forms of animal-based protein.
It requires less energy to farm them, and extracting the protein from them is more energy-efficient than processing other forms of animal protein.
How Does It Work
The Exo Protein Acheta Cricket Powder 1 Pound works like any other protein powder. It can supply your body with more protein that you may not already be getting from your diet. This makes it a great suggestion for people who need more protein overall or who find it difficult to eat enough high-protein foods.
How to Take & Dosage
There’s no upper limit to how much Exo Protein Acheta Cricket Powder 1 Pound you can take in a day. It dissolves into any liquid you mix it with. The easy option is to drink it after mixing it with water, but you can also use it in baking, as a dip, in smoothies, as a dessert base, or to make spreads.
Exo Protein Chocolate Chirp Cookies Review
Yep, you read the title of the next product in this Exo Protein review correctly. There are chocolate chips in these cookies, but the cute pun in the title lets you know that they contain Exo Protein’s bespoke Acheta protein blend. One bag of 7 Exo Protein Chocolate Chirp Cookies costs $6.
Ingredients Label
The Exo Protein Chocolate Chirp Cookies have the most extensive ingredient list of any item I’ve included so far.
They include an all-purpose flour blend comprised of wheat and barley flour, semi-sweet chocolate chips, butter, sugar, egg, and apple puree. Obviously, these ingredients mean that the Exo Protein Chocolate Chirp Cookies are neither gluten-free nor dairy-free.
However, there are some protein sources in the form of egg whites and Acheta.
Nutritional Value
A single 28-gram cookie has these macronutrient values;
- 3 grams of protein
- 16 grams of carbohydrates, with 1 gram of fiber and 8 grams of sugar
- 6 grams of fat, with almost 4 grams of saturated fat
Only one serving of the Exo Protein Chocolate Chirp Cookies contains 130 calories but is not a large source of any vitamins or minerals.
Benefits
The benefits of eating an Exo Protein Chocolate Chirp Cookie instead of other cookie brands are that these treats do not contain any GMOs, use all-natural ingredients, and come from the brand’s sustainable warehouse.
Beyond that, these cookies don’t offer any tangible health benefits over any other cookie, but that’s okay, seeing as they’re designed to be a snack first-and-foremost.
How Does It Work
Since these cookies are pretty much regular chocolate chip treats made with Acheta protein, there isn’t a magical process behind how they work. They contain the classic ingredients to make a cookie taste good (i.e., butter and sugar).
Eating a few servings of the Exo Protein Chocolate Chirp Cookies may provide you with more protein than you would normally get from a store-bought cookie brand.
How to Take & Dosage
Writing this Exo Protein review, I would love to tell you that you can eat as many cookies as you want, but you probably shouldn’t have a diet filled solely with them as they don’t contain the vitamins and minerals we need.
Besides that, you can eat the Exo Protein Chocolate Chirp Cookies guilt-free as they are ethically produced and have a, if ever-so-slightly, higher protein content than most average cookies.
Who Is Exo Protein For?
Exo Protein is for anyone who wants to add more protein to their diet, wants to use a more sustainable protein source, or who has been curious about consuming insects but wants to baby-step into that wading pool.
Exo Protein Side Effects
I couldn’t find any reported side effects for any Exo Protein products or cricket protein by itself.
Exo Protein Reviews: What Do Customers Think?
I took to the brand’s website to see what customers had to say about Exo Protein’s products. Here are the review scores I gathered from there.
- Exo Protein Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Protein Bars 12 Count: 4.9/5 stars out of 85 reviews
- Exo Protein Acheta Cricket Powder 1 Pound: 4.9/5 stars out of 39 reviews
- Exo Protein Chocolate Chirp Cookies: 5/5 stars out of 1 review
- Exo Protein Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Protein Bars: 4.9/5 stars out of 86 reviews
This Exo protein bars review illustrates the praise I found throughout many customer testimonials. “These are the only protein bars my wife will eat. Packed with the protein these bars give her the energy she needs to finish her day well. All other protein bars upset her stomach.”
Comments like these weren’t just relegated to the Exo protein bars, either. Customers applauded many of the brand’s products for being easier on their stomachs compared to whey or casein protein.
Exo protein powder and other items were also said to taste great. People said that Exo Protein had a smooth taste and texture that was pleasant to experience. They loved adding it to their daily routine.
Another benefit is that products like the Exo cricket protein bar expanded people’s minds to using crickets for protein. Some customers found the idea of eating insects hard to stomach but had no problem chowing down on a few cricket bars or cookies.
Here’s an Exo Protein review that expands upon that idea. “It’s been two months now since I started using the cricket powder in my morning smoothies. My gut feels less bloated and my joints are less stiff. It will be a while before I can get over the psychological aversion to eating whole insects, but with Exo cricket powder I am taking the first step to a more sustainable diet.”
People heralded the Exo Protein bars as a complete and filling snack that didn’t taste anything like crickets. One 5/5 stars customer Exo Protein review described them as, “These are surprisingly delicious and you’d never guess they contain cricket powder. I love the healthy ingredients, high fat, high protein, fairly low in sugar, decent fiber content.”
I also took note of what people said about Exo Protein on Reddit. Some users said that while the brand’s items tasted good and improved their gut health, they felt that cricket protein was too expensive.
Whether or not this is a deal-breaker is up for you to decide, as it’s ultimately in the palm of the user whether they want to spend more money on their health or not.
Is Exo Protein Legit?
There were few, if any, negative customer reviews about Exo Protein’s shipping or customer service, so I feel safe calling them a legitimate company.
Is Exo Protein Worth It?
The only reason that I’d hesitate to recommend Exo Protein is that their prices are relatively higher for their products. However, that’s only when you compare them to the cost of whey protein.
Acheta protein is more expensive since it’s not nearly as popular as dairy in North America. That being said, I do believe that you could consider the health benefits associated with Exo Protein as justifying their price tag.
Exo Protein Promotions & Discounts
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any Exo Protein promotions or discounts available at the time of writing this article.
Where to Buy Exo Protein
You can purchase Exo Protein from the brand’s website, exoprotein.com, or from online distributors like Amazon.
FAQ
Is Exo Protein vegan?
Get out of here and run back to your pea protein isolates, vegans. Exo Protein’s products may be dairy-free, but they are not vegan because they include egg whites, not to mention that the brand’s main protein source is crickets. Last time I checked, crickets are not vegan.
Is Exo Protein gluten-free?
Some of the products I covered in this Exo Protein review are gluten-free, namely their protein bars and protein powder, but others like the Exo Protein Chocolate Chirp Cookies are not as they contain wheat.
What is Exo Protein’s Shipping Policy?
Exo Protein ships all of their food products from their Chicago location. They can ship to Canada and the United States. They provide free shipping for US orders over $50 besides those to Hawaii or Alaska.
What is Exo Protein’s Return Policy?
The company does not offer returns or refunds on any products because they are all perishable food items.
How to Contact Exo Protein
I’ll conclude this Exo Protein review by listing all the ways you can get in touch with the brand, just in case you still had questions I didn’t cover.
- Fill out one of their customer service forms on their website
- Message them on their Facebook page
- Email them at [email protected]
Check out similar brands you might like:
Ask the community or leave a comment
WRITE A REVIEWCustomer Reviews
Leave a review