**Dorothy N. Nyangena 1, Christopher Mutungi 2,\*, Samuel Imathiu 1, John Kinyuru 1, Hippolyte A**ff**ognon 3, Sunday Ekesi 4, Dorothy Nakimbugwe <sup>5</sup> and Komi K. M. Fiaboe <sup>6</sup>**


Received: 8 March 2020; Accepted: 3 April 2020; Published: 4 May 2020

**Abstract:** Edible insects are increasingly being considered as food and feed ingredients because of their rich nutrient content. Already, edible insect farming has taken-off in Africa, but quality and safety concerns call for simple, actionable hazard control mechanisms. We examined the effects of traditional processing techniques—boiling, toasting, solar-drying, oven-drying, boiling + oven-drying, boiling + solar-drying, toasting + oven-drying, toasting + solar-drying—on the proximate composition and microbiological quality of adult *Acheta domesticus* and *Ruspolia di*ff*erens*, the prepupae of *Hermetia illucens* and 5th instar larvae of *Spodoptera littoralis*. Boiling, toasting, and drying decreased the dry matter crude fat by 0.8–51% in the order: toasting > boiling > oven-drying > solar-drying, whereas the protein contents increased by 1.2–22% following the same order. Boiling and toasting decreased aerobic mesophilic bacterial populations, lowered *Staphylococcus aureus*, and eliminated the yeasts and moulds, Lac+ enteric bacteria, and *Salmonella.* Oven-drying alone marginally lowered bacterial populations as well as yeast and moulds, whereas solar-drying alone had no effect on these parameters. Oven-drying of the boiled or toasted products increased the aerobic mesophilic bacteria counts but the products remained negative on Lac+ enteric bacteria and *Salmonella*. Traditional processing improves microbial safety but alters the nutritional value. Species- and treatment-specific patterns exist.

**Keywords:** entomophagy; processing; traditional knowledge; food/feed safety; nutrition
