Quality of edible insects seen by Belgian academics

In Belgium, as everywhere in Europe, edible insects are not yet introduced in food habits. Edible insects must reach a certain level of quality to be accepted as food by European people. Quality is defined as “the requirements necessary to satisfy the needs and expectations of the consumer”(1). In the case of food, quality is divided into five dimensions: Safety (i.e. hygienic quality), Health (i.e. nutritional quality), Satisfaction (i.e. organoleptic quality), Service (i.e. functional quality) and Society (i.e. symbolic quality). Each dimension has a variable importance depending on the consumer and the food.
A study was conducted in Gembloux (Belgium) at Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech – University of Liège (GxABT). 475 respondents (mean age: 27.62 ± 11.45 years old) took part in the online survey voluntarily. This survey aimed to collect general information about entomophagy (e.g. consumer acceptance, experience of eating insects, etc.) and to define the most important quality dimension relative to entomophagy. This study was also an opportunity to challenge the questionnaire which is the initial version of a questionnaire for further studies.
More than 60% of academics from GxABT stated they would be willing to eat edible insects and they have already experimented insect eating. Most respondents knew where they could buy this food, mainly on the Internet or in store. Concerning the quality of food, health was considered as the most important dimension followed by society and satisfaction. In other words, respondents wanted to eat a healthy food with edible insects.

(1) Peri C., 2006. The universe of food quality. Food Qual. Prefer. 17(1–2), 3–8.