Abstract
Edible insects, a traditional food all over the world, are highly nutritious with high fat, protein and mineral contents depending on the species and thus represent a noteworthy alternative food and feed source and a potential substitute e.g. for fishmeal in feed formulae. Research is required to develop and automatize cost effective, energy efficient and microbially safe rearing, harvest and post harvest processing technologies as well as sanitation procedures to ensure food and feed safety and produce safe insect products at a reasonable price on an industrial scale especially in comparison to meat products. In addition, consumer acceptance needs to be established. Insects are important as items of aesthetic values, pests and as food. R. ferrugineus is an economically important insect. It is an edible insect that is eaten in the tropics. Both the larval and the pupal stages of R. ferrugineus were analyzed for their nutrient composition, protein solubility, mineral, functional and anti-nutritional factors. The pupal stage had higher protein content (32.27%) than the larval stage which had 30.46%. The fat content of the larva was 22.24% while that of the pupa was 19.48%. The ash content was higher in the larva (7.64%) than that in the pupal stage (6.34%). The results of the mineral analyses showed that mineral salts are persistently higher in the larval stage. The functional analyses revealed that the larval stage is highly desirable for chopped meat or powdered food production than the pupal stage. The insect larvae could serve as an alternative source of protein and other nutrients supplement in human and animal diet.