If you say insects, you say protein.


When you search for insect protein content, you may be confused by finding very different numbers from each other.



The first reason is that, as we know, all insect species have different nutritional values.



The second reason is that protein content can be expressed in live weight, which means in insects, or in dry weight, that is, in dry insects. Because the body of insects, like ourselves, is made up of the largest part of water, and if expressed in dry matter, the percentage of protein is higher.

According to the review of the nutritional components of 12 kinds of edible insects on the market, the protein content is 15% to 35% of the live weight, but based on the dry matter, the protein content is 52% to 76%.


This is not a trick to show higher protein content: because we don't consume fresh insects, almost all of the insects in our diet may be dry, so protein content based on dry matter gives us a good estimate of the protein we can get from insects.


This is an estimate, because we refer to crude protein, which is the most commonly used method of calculating protein content in food: protein structure, the rest is made of nitrogen; therefore, nitrogen content is determined, and then multiplied by a correction factor (that is, the average percentage of nitrogen in the protein) to obtain an approximate amount of protein in food.






Because insects contain chitin, they contain some non-protein nitrogen, which may lead to overestimation of protein content.


But don't worry: we're still talking about a bunch of real proteins!






Studies on hydatid worms showed that crude protein (51.5%) was higher than real protein (43%), which was still higher than meat protein (26%).