A global perspective and acceptability of edible insects as novel food in Western and Asian Countries: a systematic literature review

Eating edible insects is a tradition that plays an important role in human culture, economy, and health. Nowadays, there is a growing interest in using insects as a sustainable and environmentally friendly source of protein and other nutrients. However, there are still many countries having different perspectives and acceptability. The aim of this review was to systematically evaluate the factors that affect edible insect consumption perspective and acceptability in different cultures between Asian Countries (AC), Western Countries (WC), and Insect-Eating Countries (IEC). This literature review was conducted in October 2023 in three databases including Science Direct, PubMed, and Scopus. The search strategy followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. The inclusion criteria were original scientific articles, published in 2019 or later, and available in the English full text. From a total of 634 studies, 35 were included. The results showed that the factors affecting the perspective consumption of the insects are related to age, gender, education, sensory characteristics (appearance, taste, presentation mode), nutritional value, a culture belief, an unfamiliar form, a health benefit, entomophagy, and food safety. Meanwhile, the factors affecting the acceptability are related to age, gender, sensory properties (appearance, taste, presentation mode), disgust, food neophobia, lack of knowledge, past experience, sustainability, curiosity, willingness to eat, food choices and fear/scary. Furthermore, while IEC focuses more on factors related to sensory characteristics, entomophagy, health benefits, food culture and willingness, WC and AC place more attention on factors including taste, nutritional value, an unfamiliar form, lack of knowledge, past experience, food neophobia, and disgust. In conclusion, many factors have been reported to affect edible insect consumption perspective and acceptability and these factors differ between AC, WC, and IEC. Therefore, a strategy to promote the consumption of edible insects as a protein source in the global food system sustainability must be based on the target market segment and consumer characteristics.