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

昆虫是一种巨大但未被充分利用的食物资源。它们分布在全球，是世界上最丰富的动物之一。最近对其营养质量的评估也表明，其中许多作为营养来源与我们当前的许多牲畜相当或优于我们当前的许多牲畜。上级。虽然在欧洲社会中没有广泛使用，但昆虫已经在全世界三分之二的国家中被传统地食用，地球仪上有2000多种昆虫被食用。昆虫是一种广泛分布的资源，无需种植即可采集，可持续收获和保存昆虫为粮食安全问题提供了解决方案，特别是在发展中国家的贫困社区。虽然这一潜力在某些地方已经实现（例如南非的莫帕内蠕虫），但昆虫在许多粮食安全较差的地区尚未得到充分利用。我们的项目将解决撒哈拉以南非洲的粮食安全问题。许多地区，例如我们工作的贝宁地区，都经历着季节性粮食短缺。这是由于干旱季节延长，农作物无法生长。社区一级粮食储存和保存的发展有限，使这一问题更加复杂，因为在饥荒时期，粮食充足的时期不能用来改善粮食安全。本项目旨在通过开发白蚁作为可持续的当地可用食物来源，来应对这一粮食安全挑战。每年，一个白蚁丘将产生数千个有翅膀的个体，这些个体将从土丘分散，并可以在当地收集。这些白蚁的营养价值很高，该地区的一些社区传统上已经食用这些白蚁。它们是自然的“过度生产”-成千上万的人从一个土堆中飞出来，99%被鸟类或爬行动物吃掉。因此，有翅白蚁作为一种可持续的食品提供了巨大的前景。我们将评估不同方法收集白蚁的有效性，并将其与区域白蚁总潜在产量的评估联合收割机结合起来，以确定有翅白蚁所代表的自然资本的大小。然后，我们将改进收获技术，并开发保存技术，使产品能够在饥荒期间进行商业交易/在当地使用。总之，这些数据和技术将使我们能够确定基于白蚁的食品的价值链。在社区内使用和当地销售能力将被视为在饥荒期间维持营养的两种手段。我们的项目将与贝宁北方的社区合作，并为他们提供直接的手段，以提高粮食安全使用白蚁作为食品。在这样做的过程中，将现有的食用昆虫的区域传统与食品保存和生产的现代进步相结合，可以使用完全本地化的方法来实现粮食安全。该项目旨在进一步验证概念，在撒哈拉以南非洲地区更广泛地使用白蚁作为食物来源。

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.