Edible Aquatic Insects: Diversities, Nutrition, and Safety.

ABSTRACT: Edible insects have great potential to be human food; among them, aquatic insects have unique characteristics and deserve special attention. Before consuming these insects, the nutrition and food safety should always be considered. In this review, we summarized the species diversity, nutrition composition, and food safety of edible aquatic insects, and also compared their distinguished characteristics with those of terrestrial insects. Generally, in contrast with the role of plant feeders that most terrestrial edible insect species play, most aquatic edible insects are carnivorous animals. Besides the differences in physiology and metabolism, there are differences in fat, fatty acid, limiting/flavor amino acid, and mineral element contents between terrestrial and aquatic insects. Furthermo

SUBMITTER: Zhao M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8700862 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature