The potential of snails as a source of food and feed

Abstract

Snails are molluscs with a muscular foot (edible organ), and their entire body is encapsulated in a calcareous shell. Snail consumption is a popular food culture in Asia and selected regions of Europe. Snail meat is rich in essential nutrients, particularly protein (up to 21 % on a dry matter basis) and several essential amino acids, including leucine, lysine, threonine, valine, and isoleucine, and also unsaturated fatty acids (>45 % of total fat). Snail meat is a rich source of various minerals, particularly calcium and magnesium. Thus, snails seem to have superior meat quality and demonstrate massive potential for utilizing them as an alternative food or feed ingredient. Additionally, snail meat as well as mucus could be used as a bioactive and health-promoting food component with specific health benefits for humans. Snails can play a crucial role as an alternative nutrient source for livestock, in addition to their applications as food. Snails could be used as a feed ingredient in the form of whole snail meal or snail flesh meal in the diets of livestock, particularly monogastric animals, to replace conventional sources of protein, such as soybean meal. Despite their significant nutritional advantages as food or feed, snails are reservoirs of harmful microbes, mainly zoonotic parasites, especially in wild conditions. Thus, future studies are needed to ensure how the immense nutritional potential of snails can be exploited while minimizing the microbial risks and undesirable health consequences in humans or animals.