PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Ind. Microbiol.
Sec. Food
This article is part of the Research TopicWomen in Industrial MicrobiologyView all articles
Exploring the prebiotic activity of edible insect flour: a sustainable functional food ingredient
Provisionally accepted
- 1Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l'analisi dell'economia agraria, Rome, Italy
- 2Council for Agricultural Research and Agricultural Economy Analysis | CREA, Rome, Italy
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Edible insect flour, particularly from house cricket (Acheta domesticus) and mealworms (Tenebrio molitor), is gaining attention as a sustainable and functional food ingredient due to its high nutritional value and low environmental impact. The edible insects are considered a source of micronutrients and protein which play a crucial role as they are involved in several physiological processes. Moreover, edible insects are also a source of fatty acids and fiber. Beyond these recognized benefits, insect flour may also contribute to gut health through potential prebiotic properties. Indeed, several studies highlighted that insect flour may interact with probiotic bacteria by modulating their metabolism. In the gut microbiota, Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, the most important genera for their probiotic activities are known to be susceptible to the action of prebiotics. However, further study is needed on the strain-dependent response of probiotics to insect flour. These highlighted activities related to the application of insect flour as food and feed underline its functional value beyond its nutritional content, suggesting it as a new ingredient capable of promoting beneficial gut microbiota.
Keywords: Insect flour, prebiotic, functional ingredients, health effects, Gut Microbiota
Received: 30 Sep 2025; Accepted: 14 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Foti, Sanfilippo and Romeo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Flora Valeria Romeo, floravaleria.romeo@crea.gov.it
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