Edible Insects as Food–Insect Welfare and Ethical Aspects from a Consumer Perspective

Abstract

A growing number of studies underline consumers’ concerns about the importance of animal welfare as a general concept for consumers’ purchase decisions. In particular, consumers perceive animal husbandry to be one of the most important aspects of animal welfare. Since intensive livestock production is criticized across society, the acceptance of current intensive production systems of edible insects is an issue of investigation. Criteria of insect welfare might differ from vertebrate welfare. One might argue that it is difficult to define standards for insect welfare due to their large diversity in living environments and feed requirements. In addition, it is debated whether insects are conscious and suffer from pain. It has been demanded to rear insects preferably under natural living conditions and some researchers proposed to consider them as sentient beings. Basic welfare and ethical aspects of insects as food and feed include species-specific mass rearing conditions and euthanasia, i.e., killing procedures. Consumers’ opinions and concerns regarding this issue have hardly been considered so far. In this paper, the animal welfare of prevalent livestock is defined and outlined, and relevant criteria are transferred to insect welfare. Different ways consumers might arrive at an animal welfare understanding are discussed, along with an overview of the few consumer studies on insect welfare. Furthermore, we consider how insects are presented in the public discourse and infer how this might be relevant to consumers’ perceptions of insect welfare.

Insect-Based Food: A (Free) Choice

“…should be further investigated. In addition, insect welfare might be relevant to consumers' perceptions [80]. In a circular economy, from the perspective of resource utilization, insect food and the supply chains for these raw materials are some of the aspects to be considered in insect production [81].…”

Technological Performance of Cricket Powder (Acheta domesticus L.) in Wheat-Based Formulations

“…Hen feed (Sani sapori, Petrini, Assisi (PG), Italy) was provided ad libitum as a diet for the crickets, while water was supplied through one chicken water-feeder. Crickets were collected from the different containers between the 6th and 8th week and were fasted for 24 h. After being rinsed with water in order to eliminate feces and waste, and killed by blanching (1 min at 100 °C in boiling water), they were frozen (−18 °C) [ 28 , 29 ]. Frozen crickets harvested from the different containers were combined together and freeze-dried (CoolSafe Basic, LaboGene, Allerød, Denmark) for 24 h. Dried samples were finally grounded into a powder using a mill (Hawos, Queen 2, Bad Homburg, Germany).…”

An Analysis of the Ethical, Economic, and Environmental Aspects of Entomophagy

“…Given the predicted scarcity of traditional resources soon, the food of the future is unknown; however, new options are emerging. Insects could constitute a good alternative as food in the future due to their high protein content, which is essential in our diet, their ease of digestion, their ease of conservation, their high reproductive potential, forming large populations in a short time, and their great environmental adaptability, both on land and in water [ 40 ].…”