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Review
. 2022 Nov 15;11(22):3643.
doi: 10.3390/foods11223643.

The Motivations for Consumption of Edible Insects: A Systematic Review

Sofia G Florença  1   2 , Raquel P F Guiné  2 , Fernando J A Gonçalves  2 , Maria João Barroca  3   4 , Manuela Ferreira  5 , Cristina A Costa  2 , Paula M R Correia  2 , Ana P Cardoso  6 , Sofia Campos  6 , Ofélia Anjos  7   8 , Luís Miguel Cunha  9
Affiliations
Review

The Motivations for Consumption of Edible Insects: A Systematic Review

Sofia G Florença et al. Foods. .

Abstract

The consumption of edible insects (EI) is traditional in many parts of the world, but not in others. In fact, despite globalization and the multiple advantages pointed out about the consumption of EI, there are still many countries where entomophagy is seen with disgust and aversion. This systematic review aimed to examine the motivations that influence the consumption of EI in diverse cultures and understand if there are differences between Western countries (WC) and insect-eating countries (IEC). It further evaluated whether the degree of acceptability was influenced by the form of consumption of the insects (eating whole insects or foods containing insects). This literature review was conducted in November 2021 within three databases, Web of Science, PubMed and Scopus, according to the Preferred Reporting of Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis and using PRISMA directives. From a total of 245 studies, 31 were selected to be included in this review, based on the inclusion criteria defined: only original research articles, from 2010 or beyond, and written in English. The results indicated that the main motivations that determine the consumption of EI are related to gender, age, sustainability, nutritional value, sensory attributes, tradition/culture, food neophobia, disgust and familiarity/past experiences. Moreover, whereas in IEC, there is a greater focus on factors related to sensory attributes, availability, affordability and preferences, in WC, there is a bigger emphasis on determinants such as nutritional value, sustainability, benefits, familiarity/past experience, tradition/culture, food neophobia and disgust. Finally, it was observed that people in WC are more willing to accept food products containing insects rather than the whole insect, which is one of the most promising points to be addressed in the future. Overall, this review highlights that there are numerous factors influencing the consumption of edible insects, and differences between WC and IEC are clear in what concerns the motivations of consumers. Hence, targeting market segments and consumers' characteristics has to be present when designing strategies to incentivize the consumption of EI in WC as a part of a global strategy for sustainability of food systems.

Keywords: PRISMA; Western countries; acceptance; consumer; determinants; edible insects; insect-eating countries; perception.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA flow diagram for the present review.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Number of articles by journal title (for journals with more than one article) and according to publication year (all 31 references).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Analysis of co-occurrence links between keywords, considering those that occurred at least four times.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Analysis of co-authorship links between authors, considering those that occurred at least two times.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Geographical distribution and frequency of the studies included in the review.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Word clouds for the determinants of consumption of EI, according to their valence: positive, negative or not specified.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Resume of studies which report negative motivations for consumption of insects and the countries involved in the studies (N = number of studies; only if the number was two or more).
Figure 8
Figure 8
Resume of studies which report positive motivations for consumption of insects and the countries involved in the studies (N = number of studies; only if the number was two or more).
Figure 9
Figure 9
Distribution of studies according to the form of the insects: disguised in foods or whole.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Motivations for the consumption of insects according to being traditional or not traditional to eat insects.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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