Two Byron Bay based couples have turned their quest for a healthy and balanced lifestyle into a business that’s not only delicious, but also sustainable.

Lucas Becker, Camila Meyer, Pedro Silva, and Martina Meyer are the brains behind Grilo, which means “cricket” in Portuguese and ‘good luck’ in some countries – and also means work to this small business.

Launched in 2013, Grilo represents the merging of the quartet’s passions of healthy food, sports, and nature, into a business venture. After the move to Byron Bay, the group’s love of sports and nature triggered a search for a clean, high protein source to boost their everyday meals and smoothies.

Given the foursome surf, run, and train, their need for a protein supplement was genuine, but as nature-lovers they found the options available to them disappointing when they looked at the social and their environmental impact.

Not being able to find a product that suited their needs and their beliefs, they began searching for an alternative – and discovered the superfood that is crickets.

Realising that crickets ticked all the boxes – sustainable, healthy, and delicious, Grilo was formed. With a chef in the mix, the group began to create unique products and their quest for the future of food, and a food revolution.

The results? A range of sustainable, delicious products that can be used to create everything from green smoothies to chocolate cheesecakes – plus a range of raw bars. In fact, Grilo will be launching a new flavour of cricket energy bar at Naturally Good.

Committed to creating change, Grilo believes that crickets are the food of the future. With almost 1 billion people suffering from hunger around the world, crickets are an efficient and sustainable way to create protein whilst creating a much smaller ecological footprint to traditional protein sources.

In addition to the environmental benefits, the health benefits of crickets are astounding, offering more than double the iron of spinach, ten times more Vitamin B12 than salmon, 3 times more protein than beef, 3 times more potassium than banana, and as much calcium as milk.

The business also operates with eco-friendly values, with the group saying, “At Grilo, we are eco-friendly consumers and we try to avoid plastic and excessive packaging when we go shopping. This was important to us when developing our own range of products too. We strive to be as sustainable as possible in every aspect of our business.”

As a result, Grilo Protein is packaged in biodegradable material, using zero plastic, and the whole business operates firmly with the mantra of “be the change you want to see in the world.”