Observations on How People in Two Locations of the Plateau Département of Southeast Benin Perceive Entomophagy: A Study From West Africa.

Sampat Ghosh,Séverin Tchibozo,Chuleui Jung,Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow,Euloge Lanmantchion

doi:10.3389/fnut.2021.637385

Sampat Ghosh, Séverin Tchibozo + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2021.637385

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Abstract

We surveyed the local populations of Kétou and Pobè in Southeast Benin through interviews and with the aid of a semi-structured questionnaire in order to understand how they currently perceive entomophagy, an age-old tradition in their communities. The study revealed that the majority of the population was familiar with the use of insects as food, and a sizable number of people were still interested in insect consumption. Gender differences were not apparent. Tradition or culture was identified as the most influential factor, followed by taste, as determinants for eating or rejecting insects. However, identifying the edible species and comparing practices how they were prepared for consumption, we found that the knowledge was not homogenous across the society of Benin, with differences depending on ethnicity, culture, respondent's age, and educational background. Awareness and promotion of food insects in the society should help to preserve the practice of entomophagy and in turn could lead to the provision of much needed nutritional supplements to the poorer and disadvantaged sections of the society.

Highlights

The Republic of Benin, formerly known as Dahomey, is situated in West Africa between latitudes 6 and 13◦N, and longitudes 0 and 4◦E
One immediate result that is interesting in the context of familiarity with entomophagy is that by contrast to the present study, we found in an earlier investigation from East Africa that the majority of Ethiopian respondents were completely unaware of the fact that insects could be regarded as human food [28]
We described in the previous introductory section that there is a gap existing between the desired nutritional level and the nutrition obtained from the local food

Summary

Introduction

The Republic of Benin, formerly known as Dahomey, is situated in West Africa between latitudes 6 and 13◦N, and longitudes 0 and 4◦E. In the surrounding countries and regions further to the south, a large number of insect species are considered as edible by the local inhabitants [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Compared with these countries, Benin stands out with a seemingly relatively sparse usage of insects as human food [see Table 1 in Kelemu et al [4]]. There could be multiple reasons for this difference, a lack of field studies might well be involved, and insufficient knowledge of the causes why the people of Benin accept or reject edible insects species as human food could have played a major role.

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