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Anthropo-entomophagy: quantitatively chemical assessment of some edible arthropods, bought from an e-shop

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Abstract

Eating edible arthropods is not associated with rural life anymore. The emerging industry of edible arthropods is trying to change that. The best shopping spot to buy well-known edible arthropods is online today. Consumers can find numerous outlet options to buy edible arthropods from the Internet. With worldwide growing threats to food security, today, gastronomy, especially in western countries, is trying to develop a more positive view to arthropods’ nutritional value. In this paper, non-crustacean arthropods (armor tail scorpion, black scorpion, black ant, flying termites, giant waterbug, June beetle, diving beetles, rhino beetles, silkworm pupae, sago worm, bamboo worm), bought from online edible insect market, were evaluated in terms of availability of some hazardous chemical. Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) spectroscopy was used for determining the concentrations of heavy metals/metalloids in the total body of the arthropods. Concentration of the elements (Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Br, Rb, Sr, Pb) were measured quantitatively in all samples. The results showed that the chemicals like Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Br, Rb, Sr, and Pb have highly been measured in the black scorpion, black ant, flying termites, giant waterbug, June beetle, sago worm, and bamboo worm.

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Data availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this article. The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Narman Vocational School, Atatürk University, Narman, Erzurum, Turkey

    Zeynep Aydoğan

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  1. Zeynep Aydoğan
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ZA has made contributions to design and acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation of data, wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Zeynep Aydoğan.

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Aydoğan, Z. Anthropo-entomophagy: quantitatively chemical assessment of some edible arthropods, bought from an e-shop. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 15462–15470 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11768-y

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