Positioning earthworms in the future foods debate: a systematic review of earthworm nutritional composition in comparison to edible insects

IF 4.7 3区农林科学 Q1 ENTOMOLOGY

Journal of Insects as Food and Feed Pub Date : 2023-11-27 DOI:10.1163/23524588-20230163

E. Sonntag, A. Vidal, D. Grimm, G. Rahmann, J.W. van Groenigen, H. van Zanten, A. Parodi

{"title":"Positioning earthworms in the future foods debate: a systematic review of earthworm nutritional composition in comparison to edible insects","authors":"E. Sonntag, A. Vidal, D. Grimm, G. Rahmann, J.W. van Groenigen, H. van Zanten, A. Parodi","doi":"10.1163/23524588-20230163","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Sustainable food system innovations are urgently needed to feed a growing human population while staying within planetary boundaries. Farmed edible insects have received considerable scientific and public attention due to their potential to improve food system circularity by upcycling nutrients from organic residual streams to nutritious food. Earthworms, as non-insect invertebrates, have remained largely unrecognized in the future foods debate. However, they are already widely farmed at industrial scale for their capacity to recycle organic wastes and improve soil fertility. We conducted a systematic literature review to provide a quantitative basis on earthworm nutritional composition, thereby positioning earthworms in the future foods debate. Here we show, based on evidence from 142 scientific studies, that farmed earthworms are a potentially interesting food source. They have an attractive nutrient composition compared to the main farmed edible insect species, being especially rich in protein, low in fat and containing a favourable profile of essential amino acids. The content of important fatty acids, minerals and vitamins in earthworm biomass is higher or lower than in edible insects, depending on the feed material. Crude protein and fat contents are higher in farmed versus wild earthworms, indicating that farming conditions provide a lever for further improving the nutritional composition of earthworm biomass. Whether earthworm species or feed materials affect earthworm nutritional composition could not be finally clarified based on the available data. We conclude that earthworms have high potential as a future food from a nutritional perspective, mainly as an alternative source of protein. The integration of earthworm farming in future food systems can be expected to improve sustainability and circularity, potentially giving earthworms an advantage over edible insects.","PeriodicalId":48604,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Insects as Food and Feed","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7000,"publicationDate":"2023-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Insects as Food and Feed","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1163/23524588-20230163","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ENTOMOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Sustainable food system innovations are urgently needed to feed a growing human population while staying within planetary boundaries. Farmed edible insects have received considerable scientific and public attention due to their potential to improve food system circularity by upcycling nutrients from organic residual streams to nutritious food. Earthworms, as non-insect invertebrates, have remained largely unrecognized in the future foods debate. However, they are already widely farmed at industrial scale for their capacity to recycle organic wastes and improve soil fertility. We conducted a systematic literature review to provide a quantitative basis on earthworm nutritional composition, thereby positioning earthworms in the future foods debate. Here we show, based on evidence from 142 scientific studies, that farmed earthworms are a potentially interesting food source. They have an attractive nutrient composition compared to the main farmed edible insect species, being especially rich in protein, low in fat and containing a favourable profile of essential amino acids. The content of important fatty acids, minerals and vitamins in earthworm biomass is higher or lower than in edible insects, depending on the feed material. Crude protein and fat contents are higher in farmed versus wild earthworms, indicating that farming conditions provide a lever for further improving the nutritional composition of earthworm biomass. Whether earthworm species or feed materials affect earthworm nutritional composition could not be finally clarified based on the available data. We conclude that earthworms have high potential as a future food from a nutritional perspective, mainly as an alternative source of protein. The integration of earthworm farming in future food systems can be expected to improve sustainability and circularity, potentially giving earthworms an advantage over edible insects.

查看原文本刊更多论文

蚯蚓在未来食品辩论中的定位：蚯蚓营养成分与食用昆虫比较的系统回顾

为养活不断增长的人口，同时不超出地球极限，迫切需要可持续的粮食系统创新。养殖的可食用昆虫可以将有机残留物中的营养物质循环利用为营养食品，从而改善粮食系统的循环性，因此受到了科学界和公众的广泛关注。蚯蚓作为非昆虫无脊椎动物，在未来食品的讨论中基本上仍未得到认可。然而，由于蚯蚓具有回收有机废物和提高土壤肥力的能力，它们已经被广泛地进行工业化养殖。我们进行了系统的文献综述，为蚯蚓的营养成分提供定量依据，从而将蚯蚓定位为未来食品的讨论对象。在此，我们根据 142 项科学研究的证据表明，养殖蚯蚓是一种潜在的有趣食物来源。与主要的养殖食用昆虫相比，蚯蚓的营养成分极具吸引力，尤其富含蛋白质、脂肪含量低，并含有丰富的必需氨基酸。蚯蚓生物质中重要脂肪酸、矿物质和维生素的含量高于或低于食用昆虫，这取决于饲料原料。养殖蚯蚓的粗蛋白和脂肪含量高于野生蚯蚓，这表明养殖条件为进一步改善蚯蚓生物质的营养成分提供了一个杠杆。根据现有数据，蚯蚓物种或饲料原料是否会影响蚯蚓的营养成分尚未最终明确。我们的结论是，从营养学角度来看，蚯蚓作为未来食品的潜力很大，主要是作为蛋白质的替代来源。将蚯蚓养殖纳入未来的食品体系有望提高可持续性和循环性，并有可能使蚯蚓比食用昆虫更具优势。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Journal of Insects as Food and Feed Agricultural and Biological Sciences-Insect Science

CiteScore

7.00

自引率

17.60%

发文量

133

期刊介绍： The Journal of Insects as Food and Feed covers edible insects from harvesting in the wild through to industrial scale production. It publishes contributions to understanding the ecology and biology of edible insects and the factors that determine their abundance, the importance of food insects in people’s livelihoods, the value of ethno-entomological knowledge, and the role of technology transfer to assist people to utilise traditional knowledge to improve the value of insect foods in their lives. The journal aims to cover the whole chain of insect collecting or rearing to marketing edible insect products, including the development of sustainable technology, such as automation processes at affordable costs, detection, identification and mitigating of microbial contaminants, development of protocols for quality control, processing methodologies and how they affect digestibility and nutritional composition of insects, and the potential of insects to transform low value organic wastes into high protein products. At the end of the edible insect food or feed chain, marketing issues, consumer acceptance, regulation and legislation pose new research challenges. Food safety and legislation are intimately related. Consumer attitude is strongly dependent on the perceived safety. Microbial safety, toxicity due to chemical contaminants, and allergies are important issues in safety of insects as food and feed. Innovative contributions that address the multitude of aspects relevant for the utilisation of insects in increasing food and feed quality, safety and security are welcomed.