An eco-evolutionary guided approach to improve edible insect nutrient and feed conversion

ended

The production of edible insects is often presented as a solution to the current environmental and food security challenge of feeding a growing human population, but faces major technical and cultural limitations. While cultural limitations can be overcome by convincing people about the importance of shifting our diets to a more sustainable one, many technical limitations can be overcome by using existing methods and theory from the biological sciences. In this regard, it is critical to understand how a variety of biotic and abiotic conditions affect the quantity, nutritional quality, safety and sustainability of insect production. It is currently recognised that the gut microbiome plays a fundamental role in driving the viability of animal food production, with the EU recently investing 1.4 billion € into exploring this relationship further in vertebrate systems. However, I argue there is almost certainly also a strong association between microbiomes and the production of insects as a food resource, hence the focus of my application. Using wild crickets of the commonly farmed species Acheta domesticus, this project aims to decipher the relationship between the environment, microbiome composition, and the nutritional quality (essential nutrients) of edible insects as human food. The knowledge gained from wild animals will be contrasted to controlled experimental results to dissect the production conditions that best reflect the findings from the field. This project will provide key insights about the best quality wild populations in Europe and the corresponding optimal laboratory/industry rearing conditions that maximise edible cricket production and quality.