What is WholeSnail

WholeSnail is Singapore’s first-of-its-kind commercial snail farm. The company specialises in heliciculture (also known as snail farming) to produce ready-to-eat escargots and cosmeceutical-grade snail slime in a temperature-controlled indoor farm.

What kind of snails

Scientific name: Cornu aspersum, previously known as (and sometimes still called) Helix aspersa. 

Common name: European Garden snail

Culinary names: Commonly known as escargot, but it also is referred to as petit gris, bover, chochloi mpoumpouristoi in many other languages

These snails have been eaten for thousands of years, by dozens of cultures, and people who speak many languages, all around the world so there are many different names for the snail and the dishes that feature them.

The snails’ native range is in and around the Mediterranean sea, but their range has been expanding across Europe, Ukraine, South Africa and other parts of the world, as more and more people have been bringing snails to new places as a high-protein food source.

We raise two subspecies from this kind of snail. Wild populations have genetic variation and even though the snails are of the same species (they can reproduce together and are very similar) there are some differences, most notably in size. We raise the larger Cornu aspersum maxima, that is found in Africa and the more delicate & slightly smaller Cornu aspersum aspersum (also called Cornu aspersum Muller) that is native to Europe.

What makes happy snails

We know our snails. 

Our team spends hours on end with our snails and we get to know them pretty well. We are able to read the body language of snails - like the way you can tell the emotions of your dog - and will know when they are happy.

Snails are happy when they have optimal conditions to grow, this includes

  • Too few snails in one area and they get lonely, too many and the propensity for disease increases

  • Right now, our snails prefer violins over piano music

  • We clean their environment daily to ensure they have a hygienic area to grow in

Where are our snails grown

We own Singapore’s first and only indoor snail farm.

This is especially important since the snails are not native to Singapore, being indoors allows us to control the environment leading to faster growth rates and happier snails. In our facility, we have tight biosecurity measures in place to ensure the snails stay inside our facility.