Possibilities of edible insects use in European countries, are now an increasingly debated issue. Insects in Asian, African, Central American and South Central American cultures are mainly nutritional components. This review mainly describes the species of insects that are suitable as food in Europe and other developed countries. This comprehensive work addresses the issue of eating insects, especially considering the nutritionally important factors. Risks are also mentioned, as well as allergies, toxicity, and other aspects of the breeding and use of edible insects. Insects play and will play important roles in the future in various fi elds of research, exploitation, breeding, etc. This review provides a comprehensive current and future view of insects as a valuable foodstuff.

Inhabitants of the Indonesian island of Sumatra are faced with the problem of insufficient food supplies and the consequent risk of undernourishment and health issues. Edible insects as a traditional and readily available food source could be part of the solution. The nutritional value of insects depends on many factors, e.g., species, developmental stage, sex, diet, and climatic conditions. However, edible insects bred in Sumatra for human consumption have never before been assessed with regard to their nutritional value. Our study involved analyses of crude protein, chitin, fat and selected fatty acid contents of giant mealworm larvae (Zophobas morio), larvae of the common mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) and nymphs of the field cricket (Gryllus assimilis). Crude protein content in the samples ranged from 46% to 56%. Highest (35%) and lowest (31%) amounts of fat were recorded in giant mealworm larvae and larvae of the common mealworm, respectively. Chitin amounts ranged from 6% to 13%. Based on these values, which are comparable to those known from other food insects reared in different regions of the world, the edible species bred in Sumatra could become food sources with a potential to help stave off hunger and undernourishment.

BEDNÁŘOVÁ MARTINA, BORKOVCOVÁ MARIE, MLČEK JIŘÍ, ROP OTAKAR, ZEMAN LADISLAV: Edible insects -species suitable for entomophagy under condition of Czech Republic. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 2013, LXI, No. 3, pp. 587-593 Since 2002, when the fi rst lecture on entomophagy took place at Mendel University in Brno, till today, participants of these educational lectures were asked to fi ll questionnaires in order to evaluate interest in entomophagy in Czech Republic and pick suitable species. Analyses of nutritional value of selected species were also performed during this time. The questionnaire was divided into several parts -suitable species, sensory properties, diffi culty of breeding and processing and respondents own attitude to the consumption of insect species. For the purpose of this study the questionnaire was evaluated using the semantic diff erential, so to create a comprehensive picture of each insect species. Based on evaluation of more than 5,000 questionnaires, certain developmental stages of seven species of insect were selected for further evaluation: Tenebrio molitor (TM) larvae, Zophobas morio (ZM) larvae, Gryllus assimillis (GA) nymphs, Locusta migratoria (LM) nymphs, Galleria mellonella (GM) larvae, Bombyx mori (BM) Pupa, Apis mellifera (AM) bee brood, while cockroaches were completely excluded for use in entomophagy. Although they are easy to breed and are available all year-round, consumers showed relatively great disgust. For all of these species, basic nutritional values were analysed, as well as content of amino acids and fattty acids. All parameters were statistically evaluated using ANOVA-1. Each species appears to be suitable for entomophagy for a diff erent reason. Generally speaking, AM, TM and GA were best accepted considering the sensory aspect, nutritional values are interesting especially in BM and GM and TM wins with simplicity of its breeding.

For consumers, one of the basic criteria of choosing a foodstuff, apart from nutritional values, is their taste and smell. In edible insect as a novel food, these criteria are not quite decisive. The main criterion in the Western countries is the acceptability of the food. This work deals with sensory evaluation of protein and energy bars, enriched with cricket flour from American and Czech producers, and their acceptability for consumers from the Czech Republic. The sensory evaluation was done using the questionnaire survey and a simple electronic nose. The survey has shown that edible insect bars are acceptable as a new type of food for consumers in the Czech Republic. Best rated by consumers were orange and pineapple flavour bars from the Czech manufacturer. Statistically significant difference was not detected between evaluation of the bars from the American and Czech manufacturers. Also, the difference between the bars of different flavours from the Czech producer was evaluated using a simple machinea portable electronic nose. There was not a statistically significant difference between bars of different flavours from the American manufacturer. The positive contribution of the survey is that more than 80% of consumers are willing to consume food enriched with edible insect. This fact shows a change in public attitude to these foods.

Edible insects have gained the status of highly nutritious food with high protein and fat content. However, nutritional value of insects is not constant. It could be affected by species, developmental stage, rearing technology, nutrition or sex. This study's goal is to determine the protein and fat contents of three edible beetle species (giant mealwormlarvae of Zophobas morio, mealwormlarvae of Tenebrio molitor and, lesser mealwormlarvae of Alphitobius diaperinus) bred in the Czech Republic. Based on the obtained results, all investigated species could be considered as a reasonable source of lipids and two of them (mealworm and lesser mealworm) are also an excellent source of protein. Crude protein content of mealworm (630 g. kg -1 DM) was found to be higher than in other studies. The investigated species of lesser mealworm contained 600 g of crude protein/kg DM, which was equal to the results of other authors. Most authors report a higher content of nitrogen in the giant mealworm than were the values measured by this experiment (390 g.kg -1 DM). The lipid content in the tested samples was found in a range of 170 -390 g.kg -1 DM. The highest lipid content was found in the larvae of giant mealworm and the lowest lipid content was found in the larvae of mealworm. The determined fat content of lesser mealworms was 290 g.kg -1 . The fatty acid profiles of all samples were also determined.