The importance of edible insects in the nutrition and economy of people of the rural areas of Mexico

Insect consumption is a traditional alimentary habit that comes from ancient times. It varies from group to group, according to the ecosystem. This is because insects play a significant role in providing food. In many cases they are a vital dietary element providing nutrients of high biological value including energy.

Ingestion of this natural renewable resource is rooted among most ethnic groups around the world, embracing a large cultural biodiversity of people who eat them in a continuous way since a seasonality exists for each species. This report explains the reasons and causes for persistence or modification of this habit. The degree of consumption shows who, where, when and how these people capture, eat, fix, store, preserve and cultivate some edible insect species. Emphazing the biomass achieved and the means to obtain them for these peasants, their nutritional function, alleviating hunger and malnutrition, is perhaps their most important contribution. Also to be noted is their economic importance, by means of commercialization on different scales.

Key words:

• Edible insects
• biodiversity
• biomass
• seasonality
• means
• proteins
• digestibility
• calories
• commercialization
• Mexico