Advancing sustainable food innovation with house cricket (Acheta domesticus) and mealworm (Tenebrio molitor): Nutrition, applications, and product quality
2026
Guoqiang Zhang | Yuanhui Wang | Bin Wu
With the growing global population, food insecurity is emerging as a global challenge. In this context, finding and developing alternative food sources has become a top priority for reducing food system pressure and promoting sustainability. Edible insects have the potential to become valuable novel food sources that can be incorporated into the human daily diet to meet humanity's food demand, which could address food insecurity and contribute to building a sustainable and resilient food system. The house cricket (Acheta domesticus) and mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) are the most widely used and approved edible insects globally and hold great potential to better drive this transition. This review summarises the nutritional profile of house cricket and mealworm and their current applications from 2021 to 2025 in food development, aiming to provide useful information for understanding the potential value of both insects and their current progress in food applications, which can contribute to the creation of sustainable food system and diets.
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