Consumer reasons for eating chapulines (Sphenarium purpurascens) in the Sierra Sur of Oaxaca

Abstract

This study seeks to examine the use value conferred on the edible insect Sphenarium purpurascens by consumer segment in the travelling open-air market in the main city of the southern highlands of Oaxaca, Mexico. Consumers were surveyed and classified by monetary income, then segmented into two-stage clusters. Of the 363 individuals surveyed, 79.9% routinely consume S. purpurascens. The top three income quintiles spend 50% more money on S. purpurascens on a weekly basis than the bottom three. In consumer sub-segments of all quintiles, the predominant utility conferred on S. purpurascens is the combination of a satisfying taste and a reproduced consumption habit. Thus, eating S. purpurascens is guided mostly by emotion and tradition; however, the attribution of a nutritional utility to S. purpurascens is an emerging reason that, albeit to a somewhat lesser extent, also influences some consumer segments. Therefore, campaigns to promote and preserve the consumption of S. purpurascens in the urban context studied, which is in the process of a nutritional transition, should consider and strengthen the affective component of anthropo-entomophagy, as well as intrinsic cognitive aspects such as the nutritional composition of edible insects or their low environmental impact.