Insect food has become a hot topic. There is a tendency to emphasize the aspect of alternative food in a food crisis. However, in addition to their basic capabilities, insects are also being studied as a miracle food that has the potential to be used as a healthy food and even as a drug discovery tool. In this article, I would like to introduce insect food from the perspective of food functionality that can improve our health.

Edible insects are recommended as sustainable and alternative protein resources, but some edible insects contain rich in lipids, and their profiles are quite different among insect species and growth stage of insects. Also, their nutritional and functional properties of edible insect lipids have not been clarified. Considering the utilization of edible insect lipids for foods, it is important to investigate quantity and quality of lipids in representative edible insects. The author introduces the quantity and quality of lipids in several kinds of edible insects, followed by the expected nutritional and physiological functions are described. Regarding the quality of lipids in edible insects, we clarified that edible insects contained rich in triglycerides and several kinds of phospholipids (PL) which bound n-3 α-linolenic acid (migratory locust and silkworm) and n-6 linoleic acid (crickets). Among the PL, phosphatidylcholines are dominant and other PL species are also contained. Regarding the nutraceutical effect of edible insect lipids, lipoprotein metabolisms were improved by dietary migratory locust powder in rats. In conclusion, several edible insects are expected to be novel resources of functional lipids such as polyunsaturated fatty acids and PL. Utilization of edible insects as lipid resources with functionality can contribute sustainable development goals.

Lipid utilization such as biosynthetic pathways and metabolisms in insects shares those in mammalians. Meanwhile, insects have several specific strategies by using lipids derived from fatty acids. Here we briefly overview the lipid utilization in terms of biosynthetic pathways and their functions.