KHẢ NĂNG KHAI THÁC VÀ SỬ DỤNG ĐỘNG VẬT 6 CHÂN (HEXAPODA) ĂN ĐƯỢC

Abstract

In 2019, the United Nations announced a rapid increase in global population, predicted to reach 9.74 billion people by 2050. Thus, food production may not be able to meet demand because arable land is increasingly scarce. This situation is further aggravated by climate change, water shortages and poverty.

Therefore, it requires a shift to new, cheap, environmentally friendly, climate-resilient and sustainable alternative food production systems. One of the promising options is eating insects - six-legged animals (according to the Food Security Information Network, 2019).

Although they are small animals, insects have a high reproductive capacity, so they create large biomass, have a fast growth rate, short harvest time, save space and have an available and cheap food source. Although not all edible insects have been analyzed for their biochemical composition to determine their nutritional value, in general, the analytical results obtained for some groups of insects show that the insect body contains a lot of protein, fat (lipid), minerals and vitamins. In particular, there are amino acids that humans need, but the body cannot synthesize itself.

Currently, people only encourage the breeding of some insect species such as Mealworms (Tenebrio molitor L.) or Crickets in commercial farms. The high potential of Crickets as food and animal feed has led to the development of livestock systems and the establishment of commercial Cricket farms in some countries in Asia, Europe, America, Australia and recently Africa.

Insects living in the wild may eat some plants containing toxins and these toxins accumulate in their bodies, so when people eat them, they will be poisoned.

Many authors have also noted that when raising insects, the composition of their food should be controlled, because if they eat food containing heavy metals or toxins, it will accumulate and when consumed, it will affect their health. In addition, some people have an allergic constitution such as rashes to the chitin of insects.