An overview is given on recent developments in insects as food and food by reviewing the literature which has appeared during the last few years on edible insects. An outlook to the future is provided. About a decade ago, the attention shifted from harvesting insects in the tropics to farming insects all over the world for food and feed applications. Most production is targeted towards pet food, but it will turn to aquafeed in the next two decades. More than 80% of all publications dealing with edible insects appeared during the last five years. Crickets and mealworms are used for human food while the black soldier fly is the main species used as animal feed. The criteria to choose insect species are automation, cheap substrates, disease avoidance, and market potential. Genetics are increasingly explored to improve production. The environmental impact of producing insects compares well to other alternative proteins, in particular their capacity to degrade organic waste streams. Edible insects are not only a good source of nutrients but also seem to provide health benefits not only for humans and animals, but also for plants (left over substrate). The challenge of convincing Western consumers is reviewed and whether sustainability is an issue. Processing techniques are being developed. The sector of insects as food and feed is developing fast thanks to an increasingly conducive legislative framework. It will progress further, provided that the insect industry, academia, governmental organizations, and public society closely cooperate.

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Edible insects: Challenges and prospects

Meeting the demands of the growing population requires increased food and feed production, leading to higher levels of agri-food waste. As this type of waste seriously threatens public health and the environment, novel approaches to waste management should be developed. Insects have been proposed as efficient agents for biorefining waste, producing biomass that can be used for commercial products. However, challenges in achieving optimal outcomes and maximizing beneficial results remain. Microbial symbionts associated with insects are known to have a critical role in the development, fitness, and versatility of insects, and as such, they can be utilized as targets for the optimization of agri-food waste insect-based biorefinery systems. This review discusses insect-based biorefineries, focusing on the agricultural applications of edible insects, mainly as animal feed and organic fertilizers. We also describe the interplay between agri-food waste-utilizing insects and associated microbiota and the microbial contribution in enhancing insect growth, development, and involvement in organic waste bioconversion processes. The potential contribution of insect gut microbiota in eliminating pathogens, toxins, and pollutants and microbe-mediated approaches for enhancing insect growth and the bioconversion of organic waste are also discussed. The present review outlines the benefits of using insects in agri-food and organic waste biorefinery systems, describes the roles of insect-associated microbial symbionts in waste bioconversion processes, and highlights the potential of such biorefinery systems in addressing the current agri-food waste-related challenges. 

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ese.2023.100287

Insect-based agri-food waste valorization: Agricultural applications and roles of insect gut microbiota

Current estimations showed that the number of people affected by hunger doubled in the last two years, reaching 9.8% of the global population. According to FAO, in order to satisfy the demand for food in the next few years, it will be necessary to double food production. Moreover, the call for a change in dietary patterns has been raised, showing how the food sector is responsible of 1/3 of climate change where meat-based diets or overconsumption of meat play an important role in the negative environmental impact. Consequently, there is a growing concern in how to achieve the goal of increasing food productions without exploiting environmental resources and to explore the production and use of alternative resources, such as insects. Insects are gaining interests both as food and feed not only to reduce the environmental costs in feed production for common livestock, but also to reduce farmers' dependence on traditional protein sources. In this work we aimed to provide an overview of the state-of-the-art upon insect studies, highlighting the most important results obtained from both an industrial and market perspective. The legislative framework concerning edible insects as food and feed is also analyzed, with the final purpose to highlight recent reforms, relevant case-law as well as unsolved regulatory challenges. From a normative perspective, regulatory efforts are still required to fully take advantage of the potentialities of insects-industry. From a consumer point of view, consumers' willingness to pay a premium is going to be a key issue for economic sustainability of the insect farming chain. To meet the food and feed security challenges, insects will have to be considered all-around, including applications in the food, feed, and other sectors. We believe that this review is an important contribution to the field of food science and will be of interest to researchers, food industry professionals, and policymakers in order to prioritize research questions and help communicate scientific knowledge to a broader audience. 

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crfs.2023.100504

The future is crawling: Evaluating the potential of insects for food and feed security

The larvae of the black soldier fly (BSFL, Hermetia illucens) efficiently close resource cycles. Next to the nutrient-rich insect biomass used as animal feed, the residues from the process are promising plant fertilizers. Besides a high nutrient content, the residues contain a diverse microbial community and application to soil can potentially promote soil fertility and agricultural production through the introduction of beneficial microbes. This research assessed the application of the residues on plant-associated bacterial and fungal communities in the rhizosphere of a grass-clover mix in a 42-day greenhouse pot study. Potted soil was amended with BSFL residues (BR+) or conventional compost (CC+) produced by Rwandan waste management companies in parallel to residues and compost sterilized (BR-, CC-) by high-energy electron beam (HEEB) as abiotic controls. The fertilizers were applied at a rate of 150  kg N  ha−1. Soil bacterial and fungal communities in both fertilizer and soil were assessed by high-throughput sequencing of ribosomal markers at different times after fertilizer application. Additionally, indicators for soil fertility such as basal respiration, plant yield and soil physicochemical properties were analyzed. Results showed that the application of BSFL residues influenced the soil microbial communities, and especially fungi, stronger than CC fertilizers. These effects on the microbial community structure could partly be attributed to a potential introduction of microbes to the soil by BSFL residues (e.g., members of genus Bacillus) since untreated and sterilized BSFL residues promoted different microbial communities. With respect to the abiotic effects, we emphasize a potential driving role of particular classes of organic matter like fiber and chitin. Indeed, especially taxa associated with decomposition of organic matter (e.g., members of the fungal genus Mortierella) were promoted by the application of BSFL residues. Soil fertility with respect to plant yield (+17% increase compared to unamended control) and basal respiration (+16% increase compared to unamended control) tended to be improved with the addition of BSFL residues. Findings underline the versatile opportunities for soil fertility arising from the application of BSFL residues in plant production and point to further research on quantification of the described effects.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2022.994091/pdf

Residues from black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) larvae rearing influence the plant-associated soil microbiome in the short term

Plant diseases and pests have always been major contributors to losses that occur in agriculture. Currently, the use of deep learning-based convolutional neural network models allows for the accurate identification of different types of plant diseases and pests. To enable more efficient identification of plant diseases and pests, we design a novel network architecture called Dise-Efficient based on the EfficientNetV2 model. Our experiments demonstrate that training this model using a dynamic learning rate decay strategy can improve the accuracy of plant disease and pest identification. Furthermore, to improve the model’s generalization ability, transfer learning is incorporated into the training process. Experimental results indicate that the Dise-Efficient model boasts a compact size of 13.3 MB. After being trained using the dynamic learning rate decay strategy, the model achieves an accuracy of 99.80% on the Plant Village plant disease and pest dataset. Moreover, through transfer learning on the IP102 dataset, which represents real-world environmental conditions, the Dise-Efficient model achieves a recognition accuracy of 64.40% for plant disease and pest identification. In light of these results, the proposed Dise-Efficient model holds great potential as a valuable reference for the deployment of automatic plant disease and pest identification applications on mobile and embedded devices in the future.

A lightweight model for efficient identification of plant diseases and pests based on deep learning

Insect frass and exuviae to promote plant growth and health.

Reliable options to control the cabbage root fly, Delia radicum L., are lacking in many countries as restrictions on insecticide use have tightened due to environmental concerns. Although microbial control agents are often considered as a sustainable alternative, their application in agriculture is constrained by inconsistent efficacy owing to low field persistence. To stimulate naturally occurring beneficial microbes, soil amendment with the residual streams of insect production has been suggested as an alternative to synthetic fertilization and a new approach to microbial crop protection. In a set of greenhouse experiments, exuviae and frass of black soldier fly larvae, Hermetia illucens L., house crickets, Acheta domesticus L. and exuviae of mealworms, Tenebrio molitor L., were added to soil from an organically managed field. Exuviae and frass treatments were compared to treatments with synthetic fertilizer. Brussels sprouts, Brassica oleracea L., plants were grown in amended soil for 5 weeks before being infested with cabbage root fly larvae. Insect and plant performance were assessed by recording cabbage root fly survival, biomass and eclosion time and seed germination and plant biomass, respectively. Whereas soil amendment with black soldier fly frass or exuviae reduced cabbage root fly survival and biomass, respectively, amendment with house cricket or mealworm residual streams did not negatively affect root fly performance. Furthermore, seed germination was reduced in soil amended with house cricket exuviae, while amendment with either residual stream derived from black soldier fly larvae or house crickets resulted in lower plant shoot biomass compared with the synthetic fertilizer treatment. Amending soil with black soldier fly residual streams could become a novel and low‐cost tool to be integrated in cabbage root fly management programmes, especially where methods currently available are insufficient. Therefore, the mechanisms underlying the effects of insect‐derived soil amendments described here should be the focus of future research.

The potential of soil amendment with insect exuviae and frass to control the cabbage root fly

Abstract Aims In terrestrial ecosystems, deposition of insect frass and cadavers in the soil influences soil characteristics, including microbial community composition, with consequences for plant growth and development. Insect frass and exuviae are also a major residual stream from insect production for food and feed, that may be used as soil amendment. However, only few studies have thoroughly examined the effect of soil amendment with insect frass and exuviae on rhizosphere microbial communities and plant growth. Methods We studied the effects of soil amendment with frass and/or exuviae originating from three insect species, Tenebrio molitor , Acheta domesticus , and Hermetia illucens , at three different concentrations, compared to synthetic fertiliser. At several time points we analysed the rhizosphere bacterial community and assessed multiple plant-growth parameters of a brassicaceous plant. Results Soil amendment with frass and/or exuviae improved plant growth at least as well as synthetic fertiliser, A. domesticus exuviae having the strongest impact. The origin (insect species), type (frass or exuviae) and concentration of soil amendment influenced the effects on plant traits. The rhizosphere bacterial community differed between amended and unamended soil. Bacterial genera that contain plant growth-promoting species were more abundant in the rhizosphere of plants grown in amended soil. Conclusions Addition of insect frass and/or exuviae to the soil differentially affects the bacterial rhizosphere community and promotes plant growth in these soils, underlining their unique roles in the aboveground-belowground feedback loop, and their potential use as soil amendment in circular agriculture. 

Soil amendment with insect frass and exuviae affects rhizosphere bacterial community, shoot growth and carbon/nitrogen ratio of a brassicaceous plant

Abstract New approaches to managing the cabbage root fly ( Delia radicum L.) are needed because pesticide regulations continue to limit the availability of effective control products. Soil amendment with black soldier fly ( Hermetia illucens L.) frass has recently been shown to reduce D. radicum survival. In a greenhouse experiment, soil from a field on which brassicaceous plant species had repeatedly been grown (brassica field soil) was mixed with frass at ratios of 1, 2 or 5 g/kg. In a second greenhouse experiment, 5 g/kg were added to (a) brassica field soil, (b) soil from a different field on which non-brassicaceous species had been rotated (crop rotation field soil) or (c) blocks of potting soil that were later transplanted to unamended field soil. Brussels sprouts ( Brassica oleracea L.) plants were grown in amended soil and were infested with D. radicum larvae after 4 weeks. While amendment with 1 or 2 g/kg did not affect D. radicum performance compared with unamended soil, 5 g/kg reduced D. radicum survival and pupal biomass in brassica field soil. In crop rotation field soil, amendment with 5 g/kg reduced pupal biomass but did not reduce D. radicum survival. Amendment with 5 g/kg had no effect on D. radicum performance in potting soil. In general, D. radicum survival was lower in brassica field soil than in either other soil, irrespective of soil amendment. The effects of black soldier fly frass on D. radicum appear to depend on soil type. 

Effects of amending soil with black soldier fly frass on survival and growth of the cabbage root fly (Delia radicum) depend on soil type

Correction: Insecticidal activity of a Pseudomonas sp. isolated from cabbage root fly (Delia radicum L.) larvae exposed to D. radicum-suppressive soil

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