Entomophagy in Bangladesh: A cross-sectional survey on the consumer attitudes and readiness to adopt insects as food

Abstract

Edibles insects are considered as one of the promising future foods due to its environmental and nutritional sustainability. As like many western countries edible insects are not part of the traditional diet in Bangladesh. This research was conducted in Bangladesh to assess the knowledge and attitude of the citizens towards entomophagy. The data were obtained by a questionnaire through a pencil-paper and face to face interview method (n = 1014). Results showed that the education level of the respondents was the most predominant factor determining knowledge, disgust sensitivity and willingness to eat insects or insects-based food. Disgust sensitivity is one of the predominant barriers to entomophagy and also halalness was an important factor for the Muslim population. However, respondents having knowledge of entomophagy were open to eat insects or insects-based foods, but from the cluster analysis there was no clustering by social-demographic characteristics observed. Food neophobia of the participants was significantly influenced by all the sociodemographic factors except for gender. Young adults with higher education had lower food neophobia compared to the older adult with lower education level. This survey also confirmed that higher food neophobia was associated with higher disgust sensitivity and lower willingness to eat insects or insects-based food.