Insects Used as Food and Feed: Isn’t That What We All Need?

Abstract

This Special Issue of Foods explores different aspects of how insects can be used as a novel resource for food and feed. Some contributions deal with questions of acceptability and legality, others tackle problems related to innovative techniques in processing and marketing food, and yet another group of papers highlights the use of insects and their bio-active products in the context of promoting human health. The collective aim of the contributions by the researchers from at least 20 countries is to examine whether the use of insects—be it for food, feed, or therapeutic purposes—has a future. We conclude that positive aspects undoubtedly exist regarding the nutritional and pharmacological value of various insect species but that environmental and bio-functional issues could even outweigh the nutritional value of food insects.

Insects as Feed for Farmed Poultry: Are Italian Consumers Ready to Embrace This Innovation?

“…Nevertheless, one of the barriers to the development of the insect industry for feed could be the low consumer motivation to accept insects as feed. However, some authors [ 41 ] suggest that using insect species as feed may be more readily accepted than using insects as food. Our results support this assumption, as disgust, which is one of the main barriers to accepting insects as food [ 38 ], was not the main feeling associated with the use of insects as feed.…”

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

“…Studies are lacking, however, on likely changes in flavour, taste and texture of mealworm and other insect-containing products during storage; for the industrial production, moreover, information on suitable packaging and presentation of insect products is equally important. Effective advertising of edible insects could undoubtedly do with improvements and using catchy slogans like “Forget about the pork and put a cricket on your fork” or “Mealworms and spaghetti is food that makes you happy” could be expected to help as well [ 30 ].…”

“…A regulatory legal framework is required to guarantee that manufacturing practices, quality management, hazard analysis and other issues related to content and quality of edible insects are meeting acceptable standards [ 202 ]. Furthermore, proper labelling and documentation of the insect product would help to boost the consumers’ knowledge and interest in entomophagy as would some cheeky and witty slogans to promote insect-containing food items [ 30 ]. The scientific guidelines explained by the European Food Security Authority [ 201 ] are worth studying to prepare a manual for insects consumed in developing countries, either on a regional or national basis to assure food and nutritional security.…”

“…More studies on the chemical compositions of edible insects in relation to factors like geography, climate, processing and preparation methods would facilitate the identification of species most suitable for mass rearing and a potential to ameliorate the state of health in humans in certain parts of the globe [ 28 ]. This is especially important in view of the fact that most insects used as food today may not be much better nutritionally than traditional meats and that their ‘value’ is actually more related to environmental issues rather than their nutritional content [ 29 , 30 ].…”

The New Challenge of Sports Nutrition: Accepting Insect Food as Dietary Supplements in Professional Athletes

“…In the last decades, there has been a growing interest among the scientific community, private industry, the general public, and the media about edible insects as human food [ 14 , 15 ]. Especially, after the publication of the report on edible insects as food and feed in 2013 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations [ 16 ], and the new Regulation of the European Union 2015/2283 on novel foods [ 17 ], there has been an increasing number of scientific publications investigating the European consumer acceptance towards entomophagy [ 18 , 19 ], especially in Italy [ 20 ].…”