Are edible insects ready for the European market? First insights into insect quality as food ingredient for human consumption

The growing environmental need to replace livestock-derivated proteins has driven the European feed and food markets toward innovative protein sources, among which are insects. Despite insects are considered as classical food products, and sometimes delicacies, in the tropics, European consumers see them as disgusting and inedible products or, at very least, as survival food only useful in the most desperate situations. To convince European consumers of the potential of edible insects, the entomophagy promoters must prove that edible insects could exhibit the same quality as any other foodstuffs found on the European market.
However, food product quality is sophisticated and is a multidimensional concept. The most important facet of food quality is the hygienic quality of a product. It guarantees that the food product is safe for human consumption and it is an absolute safety requirement for any foodstuff. In addition to be safe for human consumption, a food product should provide nutrients and energy but also provide pleasure to consumers; these dimensions are respectively, the nutritive and hedonic qualities of food products. Next to these three essential aspects of quality, food products should also exhibit interesting functional (i.e. interest or advantages for consumer to use a product such as its shelf life, its ease-of-use or its availability) and psycho-social (i.e. motivations to consume or not a product) qualities to increase purchase intention.
Following a review of the potentialities of entomophagy and the possible health hazard related to insect consumption, this thesis research aimed to explore the five aforementioned dimensions of edible insect quality and to understand how these new food products could meet the European standards of food quality in the next few years. Depending on the quality aspects explored, data from this thesis could be used as basic element to produce a legislative framework on edible insects or as potential solutions for processing and marketing healthy, safe and attractive edible insects.