Evaluating the safety and nutritional quality of a novel insect based food product in Benin

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Insects represent a vast but underexploited food resource. They have a global distribution and are amongst the most abundant animals in the world. Recent evaluations of their nutritional quality have also shown many of them to be comparable or superior as a source of nutrition to many of our current livestock animals. Although not widely used in European societies, insects are already traditionally consumed in two thirds of countries worldwide, with over 2000 species being eaten around the globe. As a widespread resource that can be collected without cultivation, the sustainable harvesting and preservation of insects offer solutions to food security problems, particularly in impoverished communities within developing world nations. Whilst this potential has been realised in some places (e.g. mopane worm in South Africa), insects have been underutilized in many areas where food security is poor.Our project will address food security issues in Sub-Saharan Africa. Many areas, such as the region of Benin where we work, experience seasonal food shortages. These arise as a consequence of extended dry seasons when crops will not grow. Limited development of food storage and preservation at the community level compounds this problem, as periods of plenty cannot be used to improve food security in famine times.This project aims to bridge this food security challenge through developing termites as a sustainable and locally available food source. Each year, a single termite mound will produce thousands of winged individuals which will disperse from the mound, and can be collected locally. These termites, which are already eaten traditionally in the region by some communities, are highly nutritious. They are naturally 'overproduced' - of the thousands who fly from a mound, 99% are eaten by birds or reptiles. As such, alate termites offer great prospects as a sustainable food product. We will assess the efficacy of different methods for the collection of termites, and combine this with an assessment of the total potential yield of termites regionally to determine the magnitude of natural capital represented in alate termites. We will then improve harvesting techniques, and develop preservation techniques that allow the product to be traded commercially/used locally over famine periods. Together, these data and techniques will allow us to determine the value-chain of a termite based food product. Within community use and local marketability will be examined as two means of maintaining nutrition through famine periods. Our project will work in collaboration with communities in Northern Benin, and supply them with the direct means to enhance food security using termites as a food product. In doing so, combining existing regional traditions of eating insects with modern advances in food preservation and production, food security can be targeted using an entirely local approach. The project aims further to be a proof of concept to establish more widespread use of termite as a food source across sub Saharan Africa.