Nutritional Value of Four Common Edible Insects in Zambia

Background and Objectives: Insects have played an important part in the history of human nutrition in Africa. The main objective of this research was to assess the nutritional value of four commonly edible insects in Zambia. The insects studied include the caterpillars (Gonimbrasia belina and Gynanisa maja), grasshopper (Ruspolia differens) and winged termites ( Macrotermes falciger). Materials and Methods: The proximate composition and minerals of the insects were determined using standard methods. One way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used in analysing the data. Results: The moisture content of the insects ranged from 4.1% ±0.3 to 9.2%±0.1. The highest amount of crude fat was found in Ruspolia differens with fat content of 49.0 % ±0.1 and the least amount was found in Gonimbrasia belina which had a mean fat content of 10.0 % ± 0.2. The difference in fat content among the insects was statistically significant with P 0.05. However there was a significant difference in protein content between Gonimbrasia belina and the other two insects namely Ruspolia differens and Macrotermes falciger with the P-value <0.05. The insect richer in carbohydrates (32.8 %±0.7) was Macrotermes falciger, while the insect with a least value was Gonimbrasia belina with carbohydrate content of 7.8 % ±0.5. The highest amount of energy of 810.2 kcal/100g was recorded in Macrotermes falciger. The predominant amino acid was glutamic acid (4.35 ± 0.05 - 8.43 ± 0.16g/100g) while the least amino acid was cystein (0.11±0.02 - 0.13±0.05g/100g). Lysine was the most predominant essential amino acid in Gynanisa maja (4.02g/100g), Ruspolia differens (5.74g/100g) and Macrotermes falciger (3.72g/100g), while arginine was the most predominant in Gonimbrasia belina (4.57g/100g). The nutritional content of the insects was generally higher than that found in common meats such as beef and chicken meat and insects were generally cheaper than the common meats. Conclusions: The findings suggest that edible insects have the potential for exploitation to combat nutritional deficiencies that are of public health concern. The insects could form a base for new food products of considerable nutritive value.

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