Measuring Dietary Iron Absorption From Edible Insects and Assessing the Effect of Chitin Content on Iron Bioavailability (Study 2)

Due to the growing world population, there is a need to develop viable ecological and nutritional alternatives to animal food products. However, animal products are a key dietary source of well-absorbed iron, and iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia remain highly prevalent in high- and low-income countries. Meat and fish provide a substantial proportion of absorbed iron in the western diet by two distinct components: a) heme iron is well absorbed (20-45% fractional absorption) and is not affected by most dietary enhancers and inhibitors, which often affect non-heme iron absorption; b) peptides in muscle meat exert an enhancing effect the absorption of non-heme iron contained in other meal components. The potential of edible insects as a dietary source of well-absorbed iron has not been investigated in detail. In particular, it is unclear whether insects provide an iron moiety similar to hemoglobin which would be well absorbed and unaffected by other dietary components, and whether their presence in a test meal exerts an enhancing effect on iron bioavailability from the whole meal. To differentiate iron absorption from insect biomass from other sources, insects will be intrinsically labelled with the stable iron isotope 57Fe, while other food iron components will be labelled with the iron isotope 58Fe.The present studiy will provide novel data to elucidate the nutritional value as sources of dietary iron of insect species Xylotrupes gideon. X. gideon is an insect species traditionally widely consumed in SubSaharan Africa and South East Asia and recognised by FAO as an edible insect species. X gideon is produced in ZHAW facilities in Linthal, Switzerland under controlled conditions aiming to a highly sustainable and high nutritional value food product. Furthermore the benefit of ascorbic acid addition to X.gideon biomass on iron absorption will be quantified.