By Vijay Kumar MalesuReviewed by Benedette Cuffari, M.Sc.IntroductionWhat are edible insects?Nutrient density and macronutrient profileVitamins and mineralsProtein quality and digestibilityFatty acids and lipidsFiber, chitin, and digestive healthSustainability and nutritional implicationsAllergenicity and safety considerationsReferencesFurther reading Edible insects provide nutrient-dense proteins, beneficial lipids, essential micronutrients, and dietary fiber, with nutritional profiles shaped by species, life stage, processing, and rearing substrates. Current evidence, largely based on compositional analyses, supports their potential role in sustainable food systems while highlighting the need for standardized production, safety oversight, and long-term human studies. Image Credit: Korawat photo shoot / Shutterstock.com Edible insects like caterpillars, termites, crickets, beetles, and other species have been historically consumed in traditional diets throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America. More recently, nutrition science and food-security research have investigated the potential of insects as viable alternative proteins that simultaneously provide diverse essential nutrients, efficient feed conversion, and comparatively low environmental footprints. Large-scale global inventories and biodiversity analyses indicate that approximately 2,200–2,300 edible insect species are consumed across 128 countries, with the highest species diversity reported in Asia, followed by Mexico and several Central and Sub-Saharan African nations1. Most existing evidence on nutritional value is derived from compositional analyses and short-term studies rather than long-term human dietary interventions. With rapid climate change and resource constraints, edible insects are increasingly being reconsidered as scalable, sustainable ingredients for both human and animal consumption. Global distribution of potentially edible insect species across different land cover classifications. Potentially edible insect species imply both confirmed and unconfirmed edible insects. The figure was generated using QGIS geographic information system software version 3.34.3 (http://qgis.osgeo.org/).1 What are edible insects? Edible insects range from crickets (Acheta domesticus), mealworms (Tenebrio molitor), and grasshoppers to beetle larvae, ants, termites, and silkworm pupae. Edible insects can be consumed either as whole after being fried, roasted, or boiled, or processed into powders, pastes, and oils for breads, pasta, snacks, and protein bars. In Western markets, insect-derived ingredients are most commonly incorporated into familiar food matrices (such as flours or protein isolates) to reduce neophobia while improving protein and micronutrient density. This approach aligns with evolving sustainability and nutrition goals.2. . Global distribution of edible insect species by taxonomic order. Grey represents ≥ 500 species, Blue = 100–499 species, orange? Read More