Edible insects: environmentally friendly sustainable future food source

Abstract

SummaryMeeting the increasing consumer demand for affordable, sustainable and nutritious food is a great challenge. The rapidly growing population will have unprecedented demand for meat and meat‐based products. The livestock sector is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and a major user of land and water resources. Excessive animal farming adversely affects the environment, accelerating climate change. This review article emphasises on edible insects as an alternative and sustainable food source. Edible insects can transform a wide variety of organic products, including agricultural and food wastes, into high‐quality proteins with essential amino acids. Edible insect oil contains healthy fatty acids such as lauric acid, oleic acid and omega‐3 and 6 commonly found in coconut oil, olive oil and fish oil with health benefits. Substitution of edible insects in some food products with low nutritional value can increase protein content up to 100%. Farming edible insects can be an effective solution to food waste management which is a global problem.