Review paper: the appeal of insects as human food -with emphasis on mealworm texture, taste, and flavor

In the search for another appealing source of future food to cover the increasing need fornutrients of a growing global population, this study reviewed the potential of insects as humanfood. Most previous reviews have dealt with insects as a group, making it difficult to evaluate eachindividual insect species as food because of the generalized data. This study assessed some commonedible insects, but concentrated on mealworms. Insects, especially mealworms, have a similar orhigher nutritional value than many conventional food sources. For example, the protein content ofmealworm larvae is reported to be almost 50% of dry weight, while the fat content is about 30% oflarval dry weight. Mealworms can be cooked by different methods, such as hot air drying, ovenbroiling, roasting, pan frying, deep frying, boiling, steaming, and microwaving. Oven broiling inparticular gives a desirable aroma of steamed corn for consumers. Changes in the flavor, taste, andtexture of mealworm products during storage have not been studied, but must be determined beforemealworms can be used as a commercial food source. Factors controlling the shelf-life of mealworms,such as their packaging and storage, should be identified and considered with respect to the feasibilityof using mealworms on a commercial scale.