Attitude of assessors in the Czech Republic to the consumption of house cricket Acheta domestica L. - A preliminary study

Sensory acceptability of the consumption of whole baked house crickets by assessors in the Czech Republic was investigated. The main aim was to observe attitudes to eating edible insects before and after their tasting and to assess the extent of the effect of prejudices. Hedonic evaluation of the overall acceptability of edible insects was carried out under laboratory conditions by trained assessors. Of the 98 panellists, 68 were willing to evaluate the sample visually and then by tasting. They showed statistically significant differences (P < 0.0001) in overall pleasantness before tasting (40 +/- 22%) and after tasting (61 +/- 17%). No statistically significant differences between male and female assessors were observed, either before or after tasting. Women and younger assessors were slightly more open to entomophagy, but there were no statistically significant differences between males and females or between the two age categories (18-25 and 26-45 years of age) in the results. The preferred methods of culinary preparation of edible insects that the respondents would choose were baking, roasting and frying.