Insects in Food and Feed Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa: the Untapped Potentials
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
International Journal of Tropical Insect Science https://doi.org/10.1007/s42690-020-00305-6 MINI-REVIEW Insects in food and feed systems in sub-Saharan Africa: the untapped potentials Samuel A. Babarinde1 & Brighton M. Mvumi2 & Grace O. Babarinde3 & Faith A. Manditsera4 & Taiwo O. Akande5 & Adebusola A. Adepoju6 Received: 31 May 2020 /Accepted: 28 September 2020 # African Association of Insect Scientists 2020 Abstract Insects as food and feed have the potential to alleviate food, feed and nutrition insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) against a backdrop of climate change. Such use has gained unprecedented attention in the past decade and the trend will probably continue due to the species diversity, new discoveries in the nutritional, neutraceutical and medicinal potentials of edible insect species. In order to meet the increasing demand for insects as food and feed, insect farming should complement sustainable wild insect harvesting. The ecological impact of insect farming, economics, species biological and processing aspects deserve empirical investigation. This is crucial in order to effectively guide potential insect producers and processors. Besides the use of insects in folk medicine, several industrial products including polyunsat- urated and monosaturated fatty acids, peptides, enzymes, and antimicrobial compounds can be obtained from edible insects. With the teaming world population, value addition via product fortification is a practical strategy to enhance the acceptance of edible insects for human food and nutrition security. The future of insects as food and feed will witness the development of international trade and SSA governments should be ready to comply with product standardization and legislation requirements to penetrate external markets. Despite the diversity of edible insects in SSA and some commonalities there-in, not all consumers are well-informed on the inherent risks of allergens, toxicants and antinutritional compounds occurring in some edible species. Further research needs and future strategies to exploit the untapped potential of insects as food and feed in SSA are mapped out. Keywords Entomophagy . Insects as medicine . Edible insects . Insect food and feed safety . Insect farming . Nutritional and anti-nutritional composition Introduction ’ * Samuel A. Babarinde Africa population is projected to double from 1.1 billion to [email protected] 2.2 billion people by 2050 (UNDESA 2017). In 2050, 50% of these 2.2 billion people will be urban-based. To meet food 1 Department of Crop and Environmental Protection, Ladoke Akintola demand then, a 60% increase in the amount of food currently University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria produced and accessible will be required (Alexandratos and 2 Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Engineering, University Bruinsma 2012). In the long-term (2100), sub-Saharan Africa of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe (SSA) is predicted to be one of the world’smostvulnerable 3 Department of Food Science, Ladoke Akintola University of regions to climate change, with consequent rising tempera- Technology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria tures and increasing rainfall variability temparorally and spa- 4 Department of Food Science and Technology, Chinhoyi University tially (Niang et al. 2014) which have severe impacts on con- of Technology, Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe ventional agriculture largely rain-fed. In addition SSA is home 5 Department of Animal Science, Obafemi Awolowo University, to some of the most nutritionally insecure people in the world Ile-Ife, Nigeria where 22.8% of the overall population are undernourished 6 Department of Agricultural Economics, Ladoke Akintola University (FAO 2019). FAO (2015) estimated that commercial feed of Technology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria production will need to increase by 70% by 2050 to meet Int J Trop Insect Sci the growing demand for protein. It is against this background (Musundire et al. 2016a; Fraqueza and Patarata 2017; that insect farming for food and feed are envisaged to contriute Kachapulula et al. 2018). For instance, Anaphe venata has critically towards the alleviation of some of the afore- been associated with ataxic syndrome in Nigeria (Nishimule mentioned challenges experienced today and persisteing into et al. 2000). When insects are harvested from the wild, they the long-term furture. also stand the risk of being contaminated with pesticide resi- Insects have been utilized as food and feed from the pre- dues, especially when they are harvested in a pesticide prone historic time. About 2000 species are consumed all over the ecology (Rumpold and Schlüter 2013). world, with a little less than 500 consumed in Africa alone The SSA consists of four regions (Western Africa, Eastern (Kelemu et al. 2015;Jongema2017). In most African coun- Africa, Southern Africa and Central Africa) that lie south of tries, insects are mainly consumed as complementary food the Sahara desert. According to the United Nations, 46 out of (Paiko et al. 2012; van Huis et al. 2013; Niassy et al. 2016). 54 African countries are included in the sub-Saharan African The factors that influence the use of insects as food and feed continent, excluding Egypt, Algeria, Djibouti, Libya, include culture, knowledge of its usefulness, availability, taste Morroco, Somalia, Sudan and Tunisia. The excluded coun- and affordability, among others. It is assumed that some in- tries are often regarded as Northern Africa (Fig. 1). The four sects that are safe as human food can be safe as animal feed, regions are all tropical, with each country having her peculiar with little or no concerns for toxicity against the animals. That climate with few commonalities. The region is endowed with view has given birth to an increased number of experimental high diversity of edible species partly due to the favourable trials on the use of insects as animal feeds (Amao et al. 2010; climatic conditions. With the influence of climate change, Sanusi et al. 2013; Oyegoke et al. 2014;Maureretal.2015; there is on one hand, the likelihood of edible insects occurring Al-Qazzaz and Ismail 2016; Cullere et al. 2018; Van der Fels- in newer areas while on the other hand, there is also the pos- Klerx et al. 2018; Biasato et al. 2019). Apart from the nutri- sibility of decline or even disappearance of some edible spe- tional values of insects (Ramos-Elorduy 2009; Kinyuru et al. cies in areas they used to be abundant. Similarly, different 2010; van Huis 2015; Niassy and Ekesi 2016;Oibiokpaetal. cultures may adopt the edible species eaten by their neigh- 2017,Manditseraetal.2018; Haber et al. 2019; Kunatsa et al. bours. Although there is comparatively low edible insect di- 2020), some species are believed to be useful in folk medicine versity in the western world (Jongema 2017), the concept of all over the world (Fasoranti 1997;LawalandBanjo2007; entomophagy is beginning to gain acceptance in the region. Ayieko and Oriaro 2008; Dzerefos et al. 2013; Musundire Today, with the on-going global empirical studies that eluci- et al. 2014; Tamesse et al. 2016; Loko et al. 2019). This re- date the potentials of the insects as food and feed, the western veals the neutraceutical potentials of the edible insects. world may overtake the tropical continents which provide the Although some earlier reports on the use of edible insects in natural habitats for the edible species, on the acceptance of the folk medicine lack the scientific basis for the reported effica- edible insects. cies, recent and current studies are designed to elucidate the Recent reviews and surveys on insects for food and feed basis for such acclaimed efficacies, especially when the para- in Africa have focussed on: inventory, diversity and con- medical are involved in the collaborative studies. tribution to food security (Kelemu et al. 2015); gender, Today, edible insects have received more attention from culture, local knowledge and beliefs (Niassy et al. 2016; entomologists, and non-entomologists than other groups of Mmari et al. 2017;Okiaetal.2017); diets and nutrition insects (pollinators, biological control agents, medical/ (Kinyuru et al. 2018); different safety aspects of wild and veterinary pests, agricultural pests etc.) because of the multi- reared edible insects (Mujuru et al. 2014); and processing ple functionalities (DeFoliart 1991; van Huis et al. 2013; methods (Mutungi et al. 2019). The current review is a Sogari et al. 2019). In recent reviews of the subject matter, synthesis of most of the work done so far in SSA to pro- multidisciplinary approach has been the guide in the team vide one resource material for researchers, scholars, prac- selection (Micek et al. 2014; Kinyuru et al. 2018; Raheem titioners, entrepreneurs and policy-makers interested in ed- et al. 2019). This implies that edible insects have become case ible and feed insects. The review was carefully designed to studies for interdisciplinary collaboration. Hence, future re- collate, analyse and synthesise information on: (a) History search is likely to witness more of collaborations of entomol- and perspectives of the usage of insects as food and feed in ogists and non-entomologists such as food scientists/nutrition- SSA (b) Diversity of insect species used as food and feed ists, biochemists, animal nutritionists, and pharmacologists in (c) Proximate and mineral composition of the species con- different combinations. Despite all the earlier works done on sumed in SSA (d) Medicinal values of African insects used edible insects, new reviews of the literature are necessary in as