Company Ento, comprised of a group of science, law, and commerce students from the University of Otago, have entered a project in the Audacious Business Challenge, with the help of local locust farmer Malcom Diack.
The process involves turning whole locusts into a ``nutty''-flavoured, grainy brown powder, with no part of the insect wasted.
Ento co-founder George Mander said the locusts provided more protein than beef, more iron than spinach, more calcium than milk and more potassium than bananas.
``They are great little animals,'' he said.
He was keen to prove they were ``not a novelty food item''.
Mr Mander, who was studying law and science, said he and co-founder Liam Good had originally focused on products made from crickets, as part of a Global Enterprise Project, but had since changed their focus to locusts.
``We had a wardrobe full of crickets at one point.
``They are quite noisy animals.''
They had also got fellow students Hannah Duncan, Farah Hussain, Claire Twyman and Awhina Meikle on board.
``It's really great for the environment,'' Mr Mander said.
However marketing them would be about ``getting over that hump''- the barrier people had to eating insects, he said.
Ms Duncan said the locusts were ``quite versatile'' and as well as being used to flavour baking, it was possible they could also be used for substitute meat patties.
Mr Diack said the locust powder would need certification from the Ministry for Primary Industries that it was safe for human consumption. He was selling whole locusts, but he had not had the time to work on the powder himself, so he was pleased to be working with the students.
