Nutrition Commons^™

North American Entomophagy, Joohi Schrader, Dennis G. A. B Oonincx, Maria Pontes Ferreira

Nutrition and Food Science Faculty Research Publications

Eating insects is not a common Northern American practice today. However, in the past a variety of insect species was consumed in Northern America (north of Mexico including Greenland). The aim of this literature review is to provide an historical overview of North American entomophagy based upon both peer and non-peer reviewed sources on this topic. Regional differences in insect consumption and reasons for being underreported are discussed. We show that North American natives, and in certain cases colonists, collected and consumed a large variety of edible insects. These are categorized per order and where available, information on how these …