New insights into the emerging edible insect industry in Africa.

Implications Insect farming for feed and food is rapidly expanding, with new registered farms emerging each day in Africa. Literature was sourced from internationally recommended online data bases such as Scopus, Web of Science, and Google scholar using the following search items: edible insect farming, production scale, edible insect processing techniques, nutritional composition, safety quality and application and legislation on edible insects in Africa. Realization of food safety regulations on edible insects has been hampered by a wide array of factors such as limited compliance with international agreements on food safety and quality standards; inadequate enforcement of local, regional and international standards and global best practices; lack of large-scale industrial production of insects to supply and meet the growing demand by the food and feed sector; low quantities of insects consumed; limited data on insects' safety and inadequate resources to facilitate scientific risk assessment and upgrading of food safety regulatory systems ([39]; [30]). Methodology Figure 1 illustrates the use of mixed methods approach to generate evidence-based data on the emerging edible insect sector in Africa through in-depth literature review, mapping the status of insect farming companies, survey on production scale and collation of I icipe i 's experiences on edible insect research and their applications. [Extracted from the article]