Abstract
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that more than 500 million people, especially in Asia and Africa, are suffering from malnutrition. Recently, livestock farming has increased to supply high-quality protein, with consequent impact on the global environment. Alternative food sources with high nutritive values that can substitute livestock demands are urgently required. Recently, edible crickets have been promoted by the FAO to ameliorate the food crisis. In this review, the distribution, nutritive values, health-promoting properties (antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic and anti-obesity), safety, allergenicity as well as the potential hazards and risks for human consumption are summarized. Cricket farming may help to realize the United Nations sustainable development goal No. 2 Zero Hunger. The sustainability of cricket farming is also discussed in comparison with other livestock. The findings imply that edible crickets are safe for daily intake as a healthy alternative diet due to their high protein content and health-promoting properties. Appropriate use of edible crickets in the food and nutraceutical industries represents a global business potential. However, people who are allergic to shellfish should pay attention on cricket allergy. Thus, the objective of this review was to present in-depth and up-to-date information on edible crickets to advocate and enhance public perception of cricket-based food.
Highlights
By 2050, the world population is predicted to expand to 9.7 billion people, resulting in a two-fold increase in food production [1,2]
This review summarizes the proximate analysis, protein and fat contents of four edible crickets commonly consumed in Thailand including A. domesticus, B. portentosus and the two field crickets G. bimaculatus and Gryllus testaceus
Similar to amino acid profiles, the varied fatty acid compositions implied that species and other factors such as feed, sex and method of measurement contributed to the diversity [61]
Summary
By 2050, the world population is predicted to expand to 9.7 billion people, resulting in a two-fold increase in food production [1,2]. Increased population will speed up food insecurity in the future [3]. Crickets farming is rapidly growing to supply food industry. As it gains more attention recently, we focus solely on the edible crickets in this review. There are some review articles on edible crickets, most of them described mainly on the nutritive values and sustainability leaving some gap of knowledge. This review was structured into six sections starting with (i) distribution of edible crickets followed by (ii) nutritive values of edible crickets, (iii) health benefits of edible crickets, (iv) safety aspects of crickets, (v) sustainability of edible crickets and (vi) future perspectives
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