The new packaged food products containing insects as an ingredient

Abstract

This article focuses on a newly defined category of insect as food: packaged processed insects (PPIs). PPIs integrate dry insects (in pieces or in powder) in packaged food products such as snacks, pasta, or baked goods. PPIs have been on the market for a few years, and they are still far from being mainstream. The commercial challenges they face, all of which are addressed in this article, include production costs, certifications and regulations, marketing communication, and retail distribution and consumer targeting. The western preconception of insect eating, which has been extensively covered in the existing literature, is also taken into account, but from the food makers’ angle: how to deal with it when selling PPIs. Eleven PPI makers have contributed to this article by agreeing to a standardised interview protocol about their PPI products. Their names and a summary of the information collected is found in Supplementary material S1.