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Can insects increase food security in developing countries? An analysis of Kenyan consumer preferences and demand for cricket flour buns

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Abstract

Achieving food security in an environmentally sustainable manner is one of the biggest challenges of our time. Using insects as food can serve this purpose because they are nutritionally valuable and environmentally friendly. Embracing insects as food requires information on potential consumer demand as this would determine the success of product development. In this study, we present one of the first thorough assessments of consumer demand for an insect-based food. We assessed the demand in terms of Kenyan consumer preferences and willingness to pay for buns containing varying amounts of cricket flour. We also assessed demand by predicting the market share in a presumed market scenario. The study used an incentivized discrete choice experiment integrated with sensory evaluations. This was intended to reduce any hypothetical bias and to allow participants to acquire experience by tasting the buns. We found significant and positive preferences for the cricket-flour-based buns. The bun products with medium amounts (5%) of cricket flour were preferred to no or high amounts (10%) of cricket flour. Market share predictions showed that cricket-flour-based buns were likely to obtain greater market shares than standard buns. Results also suggested that a market for breads made with cricket flour is likely in Kenya since the demand is present. This signals that insect-based food products may serve as a viable and demand-driven way to increase food security in Kenya in the future.

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Notes

  1. A county is a geographical unit which has its own political administration under the 2010 Kenyan constitution.

  2. Crickets and cricket-based food products are new to Kenyan consumers, including for those who originate from areas where insect eating is still practiced. Therefore, food products made from cricket powder can be considered ‘novel food’ for Kenyan consumers in general.

  3. 1 US Dollar was around 90.50 KShs at the time of the data collection.

  4. A large effort was put into obtaining as efficient a design as possible since it was known a priori that a relatively limited number of participants would be possible given the time and budget constraints in the project.

  5. We did not have enough knowledge of the level of uncertainty of priors to incorporate it in a Bayesian design procedure, which may have been slightly more robust.

  6. Whether the provision of information before the DCE influenced consumers’ responses was not tested in this study. Nevertheless, we note that consumers process a set of information before they buy a certain product. Thus, the provision of information about edible insects before consumers are directed to the DCE depicts this.

  7. Results from the MNL models are not presented here. The RPECL models were estimated separately for consumers in each county because the log-likelihood ratio test (X 2 = 16.92, p-value < 0.01) rejected the null hypothesis of equality of preferences.

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Acknowledgements

Funding for this research was provided by the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, through the GREEiNSECT (13-06KU) project. We are grateful to the management of the Department of Food Science and Technology at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology for their permission to use the facilities of the Food Processing Workshop Unit for baking the buns for the field experiment. We thank the technical assistants of the laboratory for their assistance in baking and transporting the buns to the field. We also thank two anonymous reviewers and the deputy editor-in-chief of Food Security for their valuable comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 25, 1958, Frederiksberg C, Denmark

    Mohammed H. Alemu, Søren B. Olsen & Suzanne E. Vedel

  2. Department of Food Science and Technology, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, P.O. BOX 62000 – 00200, Nairobi, Kenya

    John N. Kinyuru

  3. Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, P.O. BOX 62000 – 00200, Nairobi, Kenya

    Kennedy O. Pambo

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  1. Mohammed H. Alemu
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Correspondence to Mohammed H. Alemu.

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Alemu, M.H., Olsen, S.B., Vedel, S.E. et al. Can insects increase food security in developing countries? An analysis of Kenyan consumer preferences and demand for cricket flour buns. Food Sec. 9, 471–484 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-017-0676-0

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