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| A world map showing countries where crickets are consumed as food. USA (United State of America), Mex (Mexico), Col (Columbia), Bra (Brazil), KEN (Kenya), ZMB (Zambia), GNB (Guinea Bissau), SLE (Sierre Leone), GIN (Guinée), LBR (Liberia), BEN (Benin), TGO (Togo), NGA (Nigeria), COD (Democratic Republic of Congo), SDS (South Sudan), UGA (Uganda), ZWE (Zimbabwe), TZA (Tanzania), NER (Niger), AGO (Angola), COG (Congo/Congo Brazzaville), BWA (Botswana), ZAF (South Africa), MLI (Mali), GHA (Ghana), CAF (Central African Republic), BFA (Burkina Faso), CMR (Cameroon), MDG (Madagascar), PNG (Papua New Guinea), NZL (New Zealand), NLD (Netherlands), BEL (Belgium), CHE (Switzerland), POL (Poland), THA (Thailand), PHL (Philippines), VNM (Viet Nam), IND (India), IDN (Indonesia), LAO (Laos People's Democratic Republic), KOR (South Korea), KHM (Cambodia), MYS (Malaysia), JPN (Japan), PNI (Sabah), MMR (Myanmar), CHN (China).
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Edible crickets are among the praised insects that are gaining recognition as human food and livestock feed with a potential of contributing to food security and reduction of malnutrition. Globally, the sustainable use of crickets as food or feed is undermined by lack of information on the number of the edible crickets, the country where they are c...
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... commonly consumed insects include the orders Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, Orthoptera, and Hemiptera, respectively (27). Among the Orthopterans, crickets stand as the most-consumed insects across the globe (28)(29)(30) (Figure 1). Both the nymph and adult stages of crickets are consumed as food (27,31). ...
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Edible crickets are among the praised insects that are gaining recognition as human food and livestock feed with a potential of contributing to food security and reduction of malnutrition. Globally, the sustainable use of crickets as food or feed is undermined by lack of information on the number of the edible crickets, the country where they are c...
Edible crickets are among the praised insects that are gaining recognition as human
food and livestock feed with a potential of contributing to food security and reduction
of malnutrition. Globally, the sustainable use of crickets as food or feed is undermined
by lack of information on the number of the edible crickets, the country where they
are c...
Edible crickets are among the praised insects that are gaining recognition as human food and livestock feed with a potential of contributing to food security and reduction of malnutrition. Globally, the sustainable use of crickets as food or feed is undermined by lack of information on the number of the edible crickets, the country where they are c...
Citations
... g/100 g fat in DM, 7.00-8.00 g/100 g fibre in DM, and approximately 4 g/100 g ash in DM (Magara et al., 2020). ...
Despite extensive research on the nutritional value of edible insects, there is insufficient data on how processing methods affect their chemical composition. In this study, our objective was to assess the effects of boiling, roasting, oven drying, and microwave heating on the nutritional value of insects euthanized via blanching or freezing. Results indicated that both the methods of killing and culinary treatment significantly influenced the nutritional value of yellow mealworms ( Tenebrio molitor ) and Jamaican field crickets ( Gryllus assimilis ). Blanched and boiled yellow mealworm larvae contained the lowest level of protein (54.76 g/100 g dry matter (DM)), and the highest content of fat (35.28 g/100 g DM), while blanched, oven-dried Jamaican field crickets yielded the highest levels of protein (72.95 g/100 g DM) and the lowest levels of fat (13.31 g/100 g DM). Culinary treatments uniformly resulted in increased proportions of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and a decrease in the percentage of saturated fatty acids (SFAs) compared to the raw samples. In contrast to fats, the amino acid composition and protein quality, assessed via the essential amino acid index, remained almost unchanged regardless of the type of culinary treatment. Similarly, the profile of volatile compounds was not significantly affected by the culinary treatment. Although acrylamide was undetectable in raw samples, safe levels (0.02-0.13 μg/g DM) were observed in treated samples. Given the rarity of raw insect consumption, gaining insights into the nutritional content of prepared insect-based dishes is of paramount importance. Thus, forthcoming research that is focused on potential risk compounds linked to thermal processing, as well as strategies aimed at mitigating their presence in insect-based foods, may hold significant relevance.
... One insect group highly recommended for human consumption is cricket (both Gryllidae and other families of crickets). Globally, over 60 species of crickets are reported to be consumed as food by humans [9]. Of this number, 26 species are eaten in SSA, 41 species in Asia, five species in the Americas and four species each in Europe and Australia [9][10][11]. ...
... Globally, over 60 species of crickets are reported to be consumed as food by humans [9]. Of this number, 26 species are eaten in SSA, 41 species in Asia, five species in the Americas and four species each in Europe and Australia [9][10][11]. Both the nymph and adult stages of crickets are consumed as food [12]. ...
Gryllus madagascarensis (Orthoptera: Gryllidae) is a cricket species that shows promise to mitigate food insecurity and malnutrition. But whether this species will accept low- to no-cost weeds and agro by-products as feed, and how these feeds affect its performance, remains unknown. This study assessed the acceptability of 66 weed species and agro by-products (derived from a single plant species) by adult G. madagascarensis and compared the results to a reference feed (chicken feed). We further examined how the 11 top acceptable single plant products affected growth parameters of G. madagascarensis. The parameters assessed included development, survivorship, body mass and body length and reproductive fitness of the crickets on each of these diets. Finally, the costs of the 11 top accepted single plant products were compared. Our results demonstrated that the cricket accepted all 66 single plant products at varying degrees. Tropical white morning glory (Ipomoea alba), cassava tops (Manhot esculentum), taro leaves (Colocasia esculenta), cowpea bran (Vigna unguiculata), American hog-peanut (Afroamphica africana), gallant soldier (Galinsoga parviflora), wheat bran (Triticum aestivum), glycine (Neonotonia wightii), silver leaf Desmodium (Desmodium uncinatum), maize bran (Zea mays) and rice bran (Oryza sativa) were the most accepted. The analysed nutrient content varied across the top 11 accepted single plant products and the reference feed. The shortest development and highest survival rate were recorded with gallant soldier and cowpea bran powders. Wet body mass and body length were highly impacted by various single plant products tested compared to the reference feed. Reproductive parameters were significantly briefer on tropical white morning glory compared to other feeds and the reference diet. Single plant products cost two- to four-fold less than reference feed. The findings are valuable for developing blended diets that balance performance, cost and availability for household and commercial production of crickets as a “green” technology for producing edible sources of protein.
... From these chitosan extraction results, it can be concluded that deproteinization with NaOH is very efficient as crickets contain approximately 63.3-71.09% protein on dry base (including fat) [27,28]. Moreover, demineralization with HCl can effectively remove inorganic material from defatted powder, approximately 1.12-2.41% of dry bases, because insects have lower levels (less than 10%) of inorganic material compared to crustaceans [29]. ...
Background/Objectives: Crickets are recognized as an alternative source of chitosan. This study aimed to assess the potential of cricket-derived chitosan as a natural source to develop chitosan nanoparticles (CNPs). Methods: Chitosan were isolated from different cricket species, including Gryllus bimaculatus, Teleogryllus mitratus, and Acheta domesticus. The isolated chitosan were characterized by their functional groups, crystallographic and thermal properties, molecular structure, morphology, water solubility, molecular weight, binding capacity, irritation potential, and cytotoxicity in comparison to commercial shrimp-based chitosan. CNPs were developed through an ionotropic gelation method, followed by the evaluation of particle size, polydispersity index (PDI), and zeta potential. Results: The findings of this study indicate that chitosan can be successfully isolated from the three cricket species, with yields ranging from 4.35% to 5.22% w/w of the dried material. The characteristics of cricket-based chitosan were similar to those of commercial chitosan, except that the cricket-based chitosan displayed a higher crystallinity and a lower molecular weight. Additionally, CPNs were successfully produced from cricket-based chitosan using sodium citrate as a crosslinking agent. All cricket-based chitosan exhibited no irritation or cytotoxicity. Chitosan derived from A. domesticus however was found to be the most suitable to develop CPNs, as it produced the smallest particle size (522.0 ± 12.1 nm) with a comparatively narrow PDI (0.388 ± 0.026) and an acceptable positive zeta potential (34.2 ± 4.4 mV). Conclusions: Cricket-derived chitosan compares favorably with crustacean-derived chitosan and showed potential for a range of applications, including the use as a nanocosmeceutical delivery system in topical and cosmetic formulations.
... Insects are generally high in protein, vitamins, and minerals (Finke, 2002;Rumpold and Schlüter, 2013;Payne et al., 2016;Weru et al., 2021), and their production requires considerably less resources than other protein sources such as beef or chicken (Wegier et al., 2018;Berggren et al., 2019). Crickets are one of the most common insects raised for food and feed (Magara et al., 2021), and are used principally by the petfood and aquafeed markets (de Jong and Nikolik, 2021; van Huis, 2022). Increasing yield is a primary goal of agricultural research, and upscaling insect production to achieve higher yields is one way to meet world demand for protein (Veldkamp et al., 2022). ...
Insects, a sustainable and nutritious alternative protein source, are one potential solution to mitigating food insecurity. North America and Europe are currently experiencing the rapid development of the insects as food and feed industry, with some companies focused on farming crickets for human food and agricultural feed. Increasing yield is a primary goal of agricultural research. Yield is a measurement of product harvested per unit area, and cricket farms struggle with how best to do this at a scale of billions of crickets required for a farming environment without the costs of additional labour. I argue that yield can be thought of as a function of survival and body size at and development time to adulthood. In this thesis, I have used a multi-faceted approach to explore how diet can manipulate growth, development time to adulthood, and survival of Gryllodes sigillatus. My findings revealed that a 15% dietary supplementation with royal jelly elicited a sex-specific increase in mass; females fed the royal jelly diet were 30% heavier, and this effect was driven by significantly longer abdomens containing 67% more eggs compared to those fed the basal diet. I also demonstrate that manipulation of protein and carbohydrate availability can optimize growth and development of G. sigillatus; yield was maximized on a 3P:1C diet, as crickets fed this diet were most likely to develop into adults and grew maximum mass and body size. Similarly, I show that the physical attributes of diet can also exert strong influences on life history; crickets fed a large particle size diet grew larger and heavier faster compared to crickets fed a small particle size diet, and crickets also demonstrated a preference for medium and large size diet throughout development. Finally, I present the first recorded results detailing the pest-beneficial interactions between dermestids and farmed crickets; crickets experienced delayed growth early in life after living with dermestids, but crickets can tolerate living with, and consuming, dermestid larvae. Overall, my findings suggest that dietary supplementation, macronutrient ratio, diet particle size, and pest interactions all contribute to variation in cricket life history traits important to production yield.
... Insects are generally high in protein, vitamins and minerals [3][4][5][6], and their production requires considerably less resources than other protein sources such as beef or chicken [7,8]. Crickets are one of the most common insects raised for food and feed [9] and used principally by the pet food and aquafeed markets [10,11]. Increasing yield is a primary goal of agricultural research, and upscaling insect production to achieve higher yields is one way to meet world demand for protein [12]. ...
Increasing yield is a primary goal of mass insect rearing for food and feed, and diet impacts insect life-history traits that affect yield, such as survival, development time and body size. However, experiments rarely test the nutritional requirements of insects from hatch to adulthood, and so little is known about how the full developmental macronutrient intake impacts the survival, growth and adult body size of mass-reared insects. Here, we applied the nutritional geometry framework and reared individual tropical house crickets (Gryllodes sigillatus) from hatch to adulthood on a wide range of protein : carbohydrate diets. We measured weekly food consumption, survival, development time to adulthood and adult body size and mass, and calculated a yield metric to extrapolate our individual-level results and predict how diet influences yield at the mass-rearing level. Yield was maximized on a 3P : 1C diet, as crickets fed this diet were most likely to develop into adults and grew maximum mass and body size. When provided with a choice between diets, crickets selected a relatively balanced 1.05P : 1C diet throughout development, but males consumed 17% more protein than females. Our results represent a crucial first step towards determining the optimal standard feed formulation required to maximize cricket farming yield.
... Within this framework, insect frass was also explored as a substrate for bioethanol production. House crickets (Acheta domesticus) were chosen for this study due to several advantages: they are already consumed in certain parts of the world (Magara et al., 2021), have been approved as a novel food in the European Union (EFSA Panel on Nutrition et al., 2021), and are currently used as a food ingredient (Rossi et al., 2021). These attributes make house crickets a promising candidate for sustainable bioethanol production. ...
House crickets are among the most promising edible insect species for inclusion in future agri-food systems. Their appeal stems from environmentally sustainable rearing practices, a high nutritional value, and a long history of traditional use as food. Additionally, their rearing produces a byproduct known as frass, which holds potential as a valuable biomaterial. The utilization of house cricket frass as a substrate for bioethanol production was explored. Frass was digested with cellulases at 10% enzyme/dry matter of substrate, 50°C, pH=5, 48 h. This hydrolysis was combined with different treatments, like acidic (1% sulfuric acid) and alkaline (1% sodium hydroxide), and compared to protease treatment (50°C, pH=6.8, 24 h). The production of sugar and free amino proteins reached 30 and 5 g/L, respectively. Several yeast strains, isolated and identified from various organic waste sources, were tested. The fermentation was performed with Saccharomyces cerevisiae for 48 h with frass hydrolysate, pretreated with sulfuric acid, and digested with proteases and cellulases. The addition of molasses at 0‒60 g/L was considered. Sugar consumption exceeded 80%, with ethanol concentrations reaching 12.56 g/L without molasses and 30.57 g/L with the addition of molasses. Cricket frass was utilized as a substrate for bioethanol production, and the process was significantly enhanced by supplementing it with sugar beet molasses.
... The emulsion was prepared according to the previous section, where 50 μL were immediately dispersed in 10 mL of 0.3 % SDS (Sigma-Aldrich, USA). The tubes were inverted several times, and the absorbance at 500 nm was measured at 5, 10,15,20,30,40,50,60,90, and 120 min. The stability was calculated according to Equation (8). ...
the growing interest in using insects for human consumption is due to their numerous benefits.Insects offer efficient protein generation, rapid growth rates, and high nutritional value. Theobjective of this work was to evaluate the physicochemical and techno-functional properties ofthe different soluble protein fractions of the cricket Acheta domesticus using various methods:grinding (CF), defatting (DCF), alkalinization (SPA), and ultrasound-assisted extraction (SPS). CF,DCF, SPA, and SPS were used as extenders in food models and compared with a control groupprepared with meat and a commercial soy protein (SPI). Defatting increased the protein content(52 %) in CF, improving digestibility, while the SPS extraction method improved solid recovery(40.46 %), protein recovery (41.94 %), total protein content (53.85 %), and digestibility (53.7 %)compared to SPA. Proteins exhibited pH-dependent solubility, with higher solubility at pH 12–13and an isoelectric point of 4.5. In techno-functional properties, SPS had the highest water/oilretention capacity (2.8 g/g, 3.49 g/g), foam formation (386.66 %), and emulsifying stability(32.96 m2/g). CF showed no foam formation, although defatting (DCF) improved foam formation(8.33 %) and emulsifying stability (6.23 m2/g). Heat coagulation was higher for CF and DCF(30.58 % and 30.33 % respectively). All meat models with SPA and SPS showed high elasticityand cohesiveness but low hardness, gumminess, and chewiness. The model prepared with 15 %SPS reduced cooking losses (0.91 %) and total expressible fluid separation (1 %), improved waterretention capacity (83.02 %), and increased total soluble protein content (5.32 mg/mL). Theultrasound-assisted extraction method proved to be an efficient way to obtain soluble proteinsfrom Acheta domesticus with techno-functional properties suitable for use as a food additive or meat extender.
... Like many other saturniids, this large trade is mainly based on the collection of these caterpillars in their natural environments. Therefore, the question of availability of this protein source to support food security sustainably in regions where they are consumed is intriguing for development science (Magara et al., 2021;Van Huis, 2015). ...
... It is well known that lauric acid and the monoglyceride derivative glycerol monolaurate have antibacterial properties. These lipids are abundant in the edible insect Hermetia illucens, which can be used as food for both animals and people [44]. It is becoming more popular to utilize insects as a sustainable source of protein and other nutrients, but more investigation is required to properly comprehend the possible health advantages of ingesting bioactive lipids obtained from insects. ...
Lipids are one of the major biomolecules of our life with diverse structures and functions. Dietary lipids are an essential source of nutrients and energy for humans. Even though the mechanisms of dietary lipid absorption and transport are unclear, numerous studies have demonstrated their biological importance in health and disease management. Fish is the major source of essential bioactive lipids called ω-3 fatty acids (docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid) which have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and protective actions in cardiovascular diseases. Despite the various benefits of bioactive lipids derived from food, there is limited information in the literature discussing the sources, analysis, and function of food lipids. This review aims to cover the eight major categories of lipids and their key sources from plants, animals, microbiomes, and insect origin. Further, the aspects of various analytical technologies applied to determine the lipids in food and their anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, and antiviral functions were discussed. This study offers a thorough overview of food lipid sources and their biological importance, including their analysis using various analytical techniques.
... It also contained all essential amino acids in quantities similar to or higher than the levels recommended by FAO (Turck et al., 2021). Insect protein digestibility is generally considered high (Biró et al., 2019;Detilleux et al., 2021;Ronoh et al., 2024), estimated to be between 75% and 98% (Osimani et al., 2017;Thrastardottir et al., 2021) and 83.9% for Acheta domesticus (Magara et al., 2021). Although it is slightly less digestible than beef and eggs, edible insect protein is more digestible than plant proteins, as noted by Gnana Moorthy Eswaran et al. (2023) and Ochieng et al. (2023). ...
To fulfill consumer trends in sustainable and healthy food choices, this study explored the application of edible insects and carob powder as sustainable and nutritious ingredients in developing a high‐protein snack, known as a protein ball. Four formulations were developed and characterized in terms of moisture content, water activity, color, texture, microbial count, and nutritional profile. Finally, the sensory profile was determined using the flash profile method, and the developed product was compared to a commercial product. The effect of replacing the conventional protein source with cricket flour and cocoa with its sustainable alternative, carob, on the measured characteristics was determined. The results showed that cricket flour significantly decreased the lightness color values (from 40 to 30) on the internal surface of the protein ball. Texture remained largely unaffected initially; however, after 2 weeks of storage, cricket flour significantly decreased the hardness (from 15 to 12 N) and chewiness values (from 1.6 to 1.0 N mm). Moreover, cricket flour significantly increased the aerobic count (from 3–4 log to 5 log cfu g⁻¹). The sensory space of the cricket samples was separated from the milk protein samples, mainly related to flavor attributes, while the commercial sample was distinguished by dryness and sweetness. In general, carob powder did not affect the measured parameters compared to cocoa. This study demonstrated the suitability of utilizing cricket flour and carob powder in a high‐protein snack without substantially compromising the product's organoleptic properties. Future research could investigate the consumer acceptability of the product.