Assessment of House Cricket (Acheta domesticus) Meal for Nigerian Households

Over 100 million people in Africa are affected by protein malnutrition because they cannot afford conventional animal protein. The light yellowish-brown cricket (Acheta domesticus) is one of the cricket species preferred for mass rearing. The study was aimed at assessing the safety of the house cricket meal for human and animals’ consumption in Nigeria. Four house crickets were collected from the wild and reared in the animal house of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Nigeria to produce several generations. Samples of adult and nymph house crickets were obtained from the stock and processed by sun-drying for three days and then analysed for microbial count. Samples of 10 g each were weighed and put in 90 ml of 4% tween 20 in 1 in 10 dilutions. Also, 10 ml was also measured aseptically and transferred to 90 ml of diluent in 1 in 100 bottle. The total aerobic microbial count for adult and nymph house cricket yielded growth with flat opaque colonies of Bacillus sp of 2430 cfu/g and 590cfu/g respectively. The mold count for the adult was 2470 cfu/g and 425 cfu/g for nymph respectively. House crickets sampled were free of diseasecausing microbes such as Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Clostridium perfringes and yeast.