Sogari Giovanni, Amato Mario, Biasato Ilaria, Chiesa Silvana, Gasco Laura
Department of Food and Drug, University of Parma, 43124 Parma, Italy.
Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA.
Animals (Basel). 2019 Mar 27;9(4):119. doi: 10.3390/ani9040119.
Recently, insects have received increased attention as an important source of sustainable raw materials for animal feed, especially in fish, poultry, and swine. In particular, the most promising species are represented by the black soldier fly (, HI), the yellow mealworm (, TM), and the common house fly (, MD). Although rapid development is expected, insects remain underutilized in the animal feed industry mainly due to technical, financial, and regulatory barriers. In addition, few works have analyzed consumer and stakeholder points of view towards the use of insects as animal feed. In this article, we summarize the main findings of this body of research and provide a discussion of consumer studies regarding the consumption of animals fed with insects. Our review suggests that consumer acceptance will not be a barrier towards the development of this novel protein industry. Furthermore, we conclude that it will be of interest to understand whether the use of this more sustainable feed source might increase consumer willingness to pay for animal products fed with insects and whether the overall acceptability, from a sensory point of view, will be perceived better than conventional products. Finally, the main challenges of the feed farming industry are addressed.
最近，昆虫作为动物饲料可持续原材料的重要来源受到了越来越多的关注，尤其是在鱼类、家禽和猪的养殖中。特别是，最具潜力的昆虫品种有黑水虻（Hermetia illucens，HI）、黄粉虫（Tenebrio molitor，TM）和家蝇（Musca domestica，MD）。尽管预计昆虫养殖会迅速发展，但在动物饲料行业中，昆虫仍未得到充分利用，主要原因是技术、资金和监管方面的障碍。此外，很少有研究分析消费者和利益相关者对使用昆虫作为动物饲料的看法。在本文中，我们总结了这一系列研究的主要发现，并对有关食用以昆虫为饲料的动物的消费者研究进行了讨论。我们的综述表明，消费者的接受度不会成为这个新型蛋白质产业发展的障碍。此外，我们得出结论，了解使用这种更可持续的饲料来源是否会提高消费者购买以昆虫为饲料的动物产品的意愿，以及从感官角度来看，其总体可接受性是否会比传统产品更好，将是很有意义的。最后，我们探讨了饲料养殖行业的主要挑战。
