House Cricket (Acheta domesticus) as a Promising Functional Ingredient: A Synoptical Review on Nutritional Value, Technological Properties and Sustainability Perspectives

The house cricket (Acheta domesticus) is among the edible insect species authorized under the European Union novel food framework and is increasingly explored as a food ingredient. This review synthesizes current evidence on its nutritional composition, techno-functional properties, safety, sustainability, and application potential for human consumption. A. domesticus powder is a nutrient-dense ingredient, with reported protein contents ranging from 57.4 to 76.19 g/100 g dry material, together with a relevant amino acid profile, unsaturated lipid fraction, chitin-associated fiber, and selected minerals and vitamins. Its techno-functional profile, including water absorption capacity around 175%, oil absorption capacity around 140%, and emulsifying capacity around 77.7%, supports applications in bakery products, snacks, pasta, meat analogs, and protein-enriched foods. From a sustainability perspective, reported feed conversion ratios around 1.5–1.9 and controlled indoor rearing strengthen its relevance for scalable production, although outcomes depend on substrate choice, energy inputs, production scale, and processing conditions. Safety issues, especially allergenicity, cross-reactivity, microbial control, and contaminant monitoring, remain central to industrial use. Overall, A. domesticus powder has emerged and should be regarded as a nutritionally valuable, technologically versatile and promising functional ingredient for sustainable food innovation.