Biological contaminants in insects as food and feed

Abstract

During the last decade, edible insects have successfully taken a meaningful position in the feed and food chain. To expand this position, product safety continuously needs to be warranted. This review focuses on the current knowledge and the future challenges on the prevalence of human foodborne pathogens in edible insects. The top three of the bacterial pathogens associated with insects for food are Staphylococcus aureus , pathogenic Clostridium spp. and pathogenic species of the Bacillus cereus group. Less is known about other types of biological contaminants, the fungi, viruses, protozoa and prions. For insects for feed, even less reports on pathogens are available so far, although the microbiota of Hermetia illucens is increasingly being studied in the latest years. In addition to the