GreenUPorto/INOV4Agro & DGAOT, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Vairão, Portugal.
CBQF-Centro de Biotecnologia e Química Fina-Laboratório Associado, Escola Superior de Biotecnologia, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Porto, Portugal.
Compr Rev Food Sci Food Saf. 2024 Jan;23(1):e13247. doi: 10.1111/1541-4337.13247.
Low consumer acceptance of edible insects and insect-based products is one of the main barriers to the successful implementation of entomophagy in Western countries. This rejection is mainly caused by consumers' negative emotional responses, psychological/personality traits, and attitudes toward food choices. However, as the role of intrinsic product characteristics on such food choices has not been adequately studied, a systematic review was conducted following the PRISMA method, to analyze studies that have assessed hedonic evaluations, sensory profiling, or emotional responses to edible insects or insect-based products. The majority of studies performed with whole insects and insect flour highlight that insect-based products are more negatively evaluated than control products. Although the sensory properties of insects are affected by species and processing conditions, they are generally negative across sensory dimensions. In particular, insects and insect-based products are generally associated with odor and flavor/taste attributes that are related to old/spoiled food. These negative attributes can be linked to the fat fraction of edible insects, with insect oils being very negatively evaluated by consumers. On the other hand, defatted fractions and deodorized oils are not associated with these negative attributes, further supporting the hypothesis that the fat fraction is responsible for the negative odor and flavor/taste attributes. However, there is still a lack of studies assessing the sensory profile of edible insects and insect-based products, as well as consumers' emotional responses to their consumption. Future studies should focus on the effects of different processing conditions, products incorporating insect fractions (namely protein concentrates/isolates and defatted fractions), and evaluation by target consumer groups.
消费者对食用昆虫和昆虫制品的接受程度低是在西方国家成功实施食虫的主要障碍之一。这种拒绝主要是由于消费者的负面情绪反应、心理/个性特征以及对食物选择的态度造成的。然而，由于内在产品特性对这些食物选择的影响尚未得到充分研究，因此我们按照 PRISMA 方法进行了系统回顾，以分析评估食用昆虫或昆虫制品的享乐评价、感官分析或情绪反应的研究。大多数使用完整昆虫和昆虫粉的研究都强调，昆虫制品的评价比对照产品更负面。尽管昆虫的感官特性受到物种和加工条件的影响，但在各个感官维度上通常都是负面的。特别是，昆虫和昆虫制品通常与与陈旧/变质食物有关的气味和风味/味道属性相关联。这些负面属性可能与可食用昆虫的脂肪部分有关，消费者对昆虫油的评价非常负面。另一方面，脱脂肪部分和除臭油与这些负面属性无关，这进一步支持了脂肪部分是导致负面气味和风味/味道属性的假设。然而，仍然缺乏评估可食用昆虫和昆虫制品的感官特性以及消费者对其消费的情绪反应的研究。未来的研究应集中于不同加工条件、包含昆虫部分的产品（即蛋白质浓缩物/分离物和脱脂肪部分）以及目标消费者群体评估的影响。
