Occurrence of Food Chemical Contaminants in Entomophagy: Implications for Food Safety and Future Risk Assessment—A Scoping Review

ABSTRACT

Entomophagy is increasingly recognized as a sustainable alternative to conventional protein sources due to its low environmental impact. However, ensuring its safety requires careful evaluation of chemical contaminants of food safety concern. This scoping review aimed to map and synthesize the available evidence on the occurrence of food contaminants in edible insects, focusing on cadmium, lead, mercury, nickel, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and acrylamide, and to discuss their implications for food safety and risk assessment. A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, and gray literature up to April 2025, without date restrictions, following the PRISMA‐ScR guidelines. Only original research articles were included. Search terms addressed entomophagy and key contaminants, including cadmium, lead, mercury, nickel, acrylamide, and PAHs. Records were screened independently in Rayyan according to predefined eligibility criteria and relevance to the review question. Of the 1689 identified records, 114 duplicates were removed, 1575 were screened, and 23 underwent full‐text assessment. Five studies were excluded, and 8 additional articles were identified through manual searching, resulting in a total of 25 studies. The concentrations of the selected metal contaminants were generally low, although variability was observed across insect species and geographic origins. Exposure to PAHs and acrylamide was mainly influenced by rearing substrates and processing conditions. The available evidence suggests that insects produced under controlled conditions show contaminant levels that warrant continued monitoring and exposure‐based risk assessment. The absence of harmonized maximum contaminant levels for edible insects within European Union contaminant legislation highlights the need for additional data to support future regulatory and risk assessment frameworks.