Edible Insects in a Food Safety and Nutritional Perspective: A Critical Review

Abstract

Increasing world population worsens the serious problem of food security in developing countries. On the other hand in industrialized countries, where the problem of food security is of minor concern, health problems related to food refer to 2 main factors: food safety and environmental sustainability of food production. For these reasons, new ways must be found to increase yields while preserving food quality, natural habitats, and biodiversity. Insects could be of great interest as a possible solution due to their capability to satisfy 2 different requirements: (i) they are an important source of protein and other nutrients; (ii) their use as food has ecological advantages over conventional meat and, in the long run, economic benefits. However, little is known on the food safety side and this can be of critical importance to meet society's approval, especially if people are not accustomed to eating insects. This paper aims to collect information in order to evaluate how insects could be safely used as food and to discuss nutritional data to justify why insect food sources can no longer be neglected. Legislative issues will also be discussed.

Effect of Tenebrio molitor larvae meal on growth performance, in vivo nutrients digestibility, somatic and marketable indexes of gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata)

“…Also Bovera et al (2015) using T. molitor larvae meal as complete replacement of soybean meal in broiler diets showed a decrease in crude protein, dry matter and organic matter ileal digestibility without effects on growth performance in comparison to the control group. The lower crude protein digestibility in TM50 diet can reflect the higher chitin content of the diet leading to a higher chitin-linked protein quota (Bellucco et al, 2013). The same effect was observed by Belforti et al (2015) which reported a decrease in crude protein digestibility in fish fed diet containing an inclusion of 50% of TM without effects on weight gain.…”

Use of house cricket to address food security in Kenya: Nutrient and chitin composition of farmed crickets as influenced by age

“…In the past, studies have demonstrated that crickets having varied in nutrient content (Belluco et al, 2013), with content of available carbohydrates ranging from 1.00 g/100 g to 47.00 g/100 g (Narzari and Sarmah, 2015). In the current study, carbohydrate content was within this range, and as the age increased, the carbohydrate levels steadily decrease over time especially when protein levels and chitin content increased.…”

Constraints of HACCP Application on Edible Insect for Food and Feed

“…While the insects' health status is not seen as a problem for the safety of the edible insects, that situation might change with the intensification of the production. Intensive production results in a higher probability of spreading diseases for the raising animals [46]. The experience from rearing bees has shown that animal-specific diseases might have negative economic outcomes [47]; thus, if the insects' production takes off for higher levels of intensive production, it is predictable that specific diseases might spread in the farms, and administration of veterinary drugs has to be considered, creating a problem with drug residues similar to that we face actually with meat from conventional husbandry [48,49].…”