Abstract
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 consumed, and the developmental stages consumed. Furthermore, lack of data on their nutritional content and the potential risks to potential consumers limits their consumption or inclusion into other food sources. We reviewed published literature on edible cricket species, countries where they are consumed, and the stage at which they are consumed. We further reviewed information on their nutritional content, the safety of cricket consumption, and the sensory qualities of the edible crickets. We also looked at other benefits derived from the crickets, which include ethnomedicine, livestock feed, pest management strategies, contribution to economic development, and livelihood improvement, particularly in terms of use as food preservatives and use within music, sports, and cultural entomology. Lastly, we reviewed information on the farming of edible crickets. In this review, we report over 60 cricket species that are consumed in 49 countries globally. Nutritionally, crickets are reported to be rich in proteins, ranging from 55 to 73%, and lipids, which range from 4.30 to 33.44% of dry matter. The reported amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) is 58% of the total fatty acids. Edible crickets contain an appreciable amount of macro- and micro-mineral elements such as calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, sodium, iron, zinc, manganese, and copper. Also, the crickets are rich in the required amount of vitamins such as B group vitamins and vitamins A, C, D, E, and K. Overall, the cricket species examined in this review are safe to be consumed, and they display high proximate content that can replace plant and livestock products. The crickets play valuable roles in contributing to the economies of many countries and livelihoods, and they have medicinal and social benefits. This review is expected to promote greater recognition of crickets as a source of food, feed, and other benefits in the world and encourage up-scaling by farming them for sustainable utilization.
Highlights
The rapid day-to-day global population increase is predicted to reach 9.74 billion people by the year 2050 [1]
We report 62 cricket species that are consumed as human food or used as livestock feed in different parts of the world (Supplementary Table 1)
This review demonstrates that the different cricket lipids are highly unsaturated, with either linoleic and oleic or linoleic and pentadecanoic acid or arachidonic and eicosatrienoic acid being the most abundant unsaturated fatty acids and palmitic, myristic, and stearic acids being the most abundant saturated fatty acids
Summary
The rapid day-to-day global population increase is predicted to reach 9.74 billion people by the year 2050 [1]. The most common species usually reported include Brachytrupes membranaceus (Figure 2), Gryllus similis (Figure 3), Gryllus bimaculatus (Figure 4), Gryllotalpa orientalis (Figure 5) and Acheta domesticus (Figure 6) [29, 32,33,34,35,36] This may not be representative of the exhaustive number of crickets that are edible globally. We report 62 cricket species that are consumed as human food or used as livestock feed in different parts of the world (Supplementary Table 1). The protein content of the different cricket species is within the range of the reported protein for other edible insects, including other Orthopterans [5]. Gryllus bimaculatus Brachytrupes spp Gryllus testaceus Tarbinskiellus portentosus Gryllodes sigillatus Teleogryllus emma Brachytrupes membranaceus Brachytrupes portentosus Gryllotalpa africana Acheta testacea Acheta confirmata Animal tissue Goat, roasted Broiler Pork
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