Entomophagy, A Potential Alternative for Food Safety?: A Narrative Review

Background: The consumption of insects by man (anthropoentomophagy) is a practice adopted by various cultures throughout history. However, despite its nutritional and environmental benefits, its consumption is still not culturally accepted by most of the Western world. Methods: For this narrative review, a bibliographic search was carried out on articles focused on entomophagy and food security in Medline, ScienceDirect, Scielo and Google Scholar and it was complemented with a manual search on the web pages of institutions specialized in health and food safety. Results: Many insects have been reported to have a nutritional composition comparable to meat products. In addition, its performance can be higher than that of traditional livestock, generating better food conversion rates, which has led to it being proposed as an alternative solution to a situation of food insecurity, although its dissemination is still a challenge due to neophobia and cultural barriers that generate rejection of this practice. Conclusions: Entomophagy is a potential alternative that can contribute to food security. To promote entomophagy, it must be addressed through various strategies, including the dissemination of its environmental and nutritional benefits.