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

昆虫是一种巨大但未得到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。最近对它们的营养质量的评估也表明，它们中的许多作为营养来源可以与我们目前的许多家畜相媲美或更好。尽管在欧洲社会中没有广泛使用，但昆虫已经在全球三分之二的国家传统上被食用，全球有2000多种昆虫被食用。作为一种无需耕作即可采集的广泛资源，可持续的昆虫收获和保存为粮食安全问题提供了解决办法，特别是在发展中国家的贫困社区。虽然在一些地方(例如南非的莫帕尼虫)已经实现了这种潜力，但在许多粮食安全较差的地区，昆虫一直没有得到充分利用。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，如我们工作的贝宁地区，都经历了季节性的粮食短缺。这是由于作物不能生长的旱季延长造成的。社区一级有限的粮食储存和保存发展加剧了这一问题，因为丰收时期不能用来改善饥荒时期的粮食安全。该项目旨在通过发展白蚁作为可持续的和当地可获得的食物来源来应对粮食安全挑战。每年，一个白蚁土堆将产生数千只有翼的个体，这些白蚁将从土堆中分散出来，并可在当地收集。这些白蚁在该地区已经被一些社区传统地食用，具有很高的营养。它们天生就是“过度繁殖的”--在数千只从土丘上飞走的人中，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具有很大的前景。我们将评估不同方法收集白蚁的效果，并将其与区域白蚁总潜在产量的评估相结合，以确定有翼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，允许产品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以白蚁为基础的食品的价值链。在社区内，将审查在饥荒期间维持营养的两种手段--使用和当地销售性。我们的项目将与贝宁北部的社区合作，为他们提供直接的手段，利用白蚁作为一种食品来加强粮食安全。在这样做的过程中，将现有的吃昆虫的区域传统与食品保存和生产方面的现代进步相结合，可以使用完全地方性的方法来针对粮食安全。该项目旨在进一步验证概念，以确定在整个撒哈拉以南非洲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.