Intsektuak, etorkizuneko elikadura?

Resumen

By 2050, a population growth of 2,000 million people is expected. Taking into account the environmental impacts of current food production and the increase in the quantities of food to be obtained, the need for new alternatives increases. In 2018, insects have been accepted in Europe as new foods and although they are little studied resources, it has been suggested that they may be the key to the food of the future. Therefore, the main objective of this work is to identify the different types of insects that can serve as food, analyse them and reflect and delve into the aspects of safety and nutrition. Insects are an interesting source of nutrients, as they are rich in high-quality proteins and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Moreover, they are an attractive source to meet the needs of minerals such as iron, magnesium or zinc, and vitamins such as those of group A or B. Disease prevention and health promotion by bioactive antioxidant, antihypertensive or antimicrobial peptides from insects are also noteworthy. Technologically, they contain compounds with interesting functional characteristics for the food industry, such as gelling proteins. However, food safety requires great control to protect consumer health due to the presence of biological risks, such as pathogenic microorganisms, toxins or heat-resistant spores, and chemicals, such as heavy metals, antinutrients, pesticides or dioxins. In any case, further research is fundamental due to the diversity of non-investigated species, as well as the scarcity of data on nutrition and safety aspects