New lipid sources in the insect industry, regulatory aspects and applications

Edible insects constitute a sustainable and alternative source of nutrients: they have potential to become a valuable protein source for addressing animal and human markets addressing part of the global food demand. After protein, the second largest fraction of the insect is constituted of lipids. Lipids can represent 10 to 15% of the insect in dry matter, making this fraction one of the major co-products of insect industry. The composition of the insect fat may change in terms of quantity and composition of fatty acids profile. Insect species, stage of growth, extraction technologies are some parameters that can impact the fat quality. Many applications of insect fat are naturally focusing on animal nutrition to replace vegetal or fish oil in poultry or aqua feed. Health or human food applications are also envisaged to replace vegetal oil or butter in processed foods, and some technical and sensory tests are reported in this review. However, these last applications, concerning food are submitted to the regulation and especially to the Novel Food EU regulation. For these reasons, it is important to have more data about safety and innocuity of insect fats: a first study is dealing with this aspect, showing an absence of toxicity. Finally, some energy or surfactant applications can also be considered.