Chemical Composition, Nutrient Quality and Acceptability of Edible Insects Are Affected by Species, Developmental Stage, Gender, Diet, and Processing Method

Abstract

Edible insects have been considered as either nutritious food itemsper se, or as wholesome ingredients to various dishes and components of traditional subsistence. Protein, fat, mineral and vitamin contents in insects generally satisfy the requirements of healthy food, although there is considerable variation associated with insect species, collection site, processing method, insect life stage, rearing technology and insect feed. A comparison of available data (based on dry weight) showed that processing can improve the nutrient content, taste, flavour, appearance and palatability of insects, but that there are additional factors, which can impact the content and composition of insect species that have been recommended for consumption by humans. This review focuses on factors that have received little attention in connection with the task to improve acceptability or choice of edible insects and suggests ways to guarantee food security in countries where deficiencies in protein and minerals are an acute and perpetual problem. This review is meant to assist the food industry to select the most suitable species as well as processing methods for insect-based food products.

Nutritional Composition of Honey Bee Drones of Two Subspecies Relative to Their Pupal Developmental Stages

“…This is consistent with the report on other honey bee drones [63]. The higher fat content in the prepupal and pupal stages than that of the adults is in agreement with previous observations [71,72]. In addition to trehalose and proline, fats are major substrates providing energy required for the flight of insects [73] and this may one possible reason behind the fat that the adult insect contained less fat than that of the prepupal and pupal stages.…”

Safety of frozen and dried formulations from whole house crickets (Acheta domesticus) as a Novel food pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2015/2283

“…Insects may contain antinutritional factors (ANFs) such as tannins, oxalates, phytate and hydrogen cyanide (Meyer‐Rochow et al, 2021 ; Shantibala et al., 2014 ), thiaminases (Nishimune et al., 2000 ) and protease inhibitors (Eguchi, 1993 ). The applicant determined the concentrations of total polyphenols, tannins, oxalic acid, phytic acid, hydrogen cyanide and trypsin inhibitors in five independently produced batches of AD dried (Table 11 ).…”

Valorisation Potential of Using Organic Side Streams as Feed for Tenebrio molitor, Acheta domesticus and Locusta migratoria

“…A thorough overview on the nutritional composition of more than 200 edible insects has been published by Rumpold and Schlüter [ 25 ], and it indicates that many insects provide satisfactory levels of proteins, energy, MUFA’s and PUFAs, as well as several micronutrients and vitamins, making them potentially suitable for food, feed and technical applications. However, when considering insects for such applications, the reflection of the feed given to the insects must be understood, especially when feeding side streams, as the diet influences the chemical composition and nutritional quality and, thus, may also influence the acceptability of insects [ 91 ].…”

“…It also needs to be noted that, apart from the influence of substrates, other factors including killing (e.g., freezing or blanching) and processing (freeze drying and oven drying, etc.) of the insects may also impact their nutritional value, as well as processing steps (e.g., chemical extractions) that are needed to implement insects or insect-derived products (e.g., proteins or fats) in different types of applications [ 91 , 92 , 93 , 94 ].…”