Edible insects in mixed-sourced protein meals for animal feed and food: An EU focus

Despite insects being nutritious and a sustainable protein source, entomophagy is not widely accepted by Western consumers. After EFSA's positive risk assessment report, few species can be legally farmed and processed in the EU under measures set out in Novel Foods regulation 2015/2283. This review summarizes scientific progress in the applications of insects as feed and complementary proteins in foods during the past five years including legislative frameworks covering this trajectory. Despite numerous opportunities presented, insects farming still faces challenges such as gaps in legislative policies, high initial R&D costs, and high costs involved in Life Cycle Assessment. As with other novel foods, insect production requires new value chains and attention to standardization, food safety-related issues, certification for mass production, and consumer acceptance. Therefore, the roles of public sector, scientific community, local authorities, and legislative bodies are extremely important in increasing awareness of sustainability implications and benefits of insects as food and feed

Nutritional and Functional Properties of Novel Italian Spray-Dried Cricket Powder

Insects, especially crickets, have been proposed as a novel source of nutrients in human nutrition since they possess bioactive molecules, including high protein content, lipids, chitin, vitamins and minerals. In this work, the nutritional and functional properties of a novel Italian spray-dried (SD) cricket powder were evaluated. The powder was characterized by physico–chemical properties (morphology, size distribution, solid state, thermal profiles, and surface zeta potential), and antioxidant properties. Moreover, preclinical properties (cytocompatibility and pro-inflammatory immune response) were assessed. The powder was characterized by microparticle structure with bulges and rough surfaces, showing distinctive antioxidant properties. The preclinical results suggested that the SD crickets were biocompatible towards Caco-2 and macrophages without immune response, representing an interesting material for the food industry that could provide health benefits in addition to the basic nutritional value of traditional foods

A Multimethodological Approach for the Chemical Characterization of Edible Insects: The Case Study of <i>Acheta domesticus</i>

Acheta domesticus (house cricket) has been recently introduced into the official European list of novel foods, representing an alternative and sustainable food source. Up to now, the chemical characterization of this edible insect has been focused only on specific classes of compounds. Here, three production batches of an A. domesticus powder were investigated by means of a multimethodological approach based on NMR, FT-ICR MS, and GC-MS methodologies. The applied analytical protocol, proposed for the first time in the study of an edible insect, allowed us to identify and quantify compounds not previously reported in crickets. In particular, methyl-branched hydrocarbons, previously identified in other insects, together with other compounds such as citrulline, formate, γ-terpinene, p-cymene, α-thujene, β-thujene, and 4-carene were detected. Amino acids, organic acids, and fatty acids were also identified and quantified. The improved knowledge of the chemical profile of this novel food opens new horizons both for the use of crickets as a food ingredient and for the use of extracts for the production of new formulations. In order to achieve this objective, studies regarding safety, biological activity, bioaccessibility, and bioavailability are needed as future perspectives in this field