DRAFT KENYA STANDARD  DKS  2922 -1:2020  
 
First  Edition  
  
 © KEBS 2020   
 Edible Insect s  
Part 1:  
Edible insects’  products - Specification  
 
  
 
 
 
 TECHNICAL COMMITTEE REPRESENTATION  
The following organizations were represented on the Technical Committee:  
Jaramongi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology  
Jomo Kenyatta University of Science and Technolo gy 
Egerton University  
Ministry of Health – Nutrition and Dietetics Unit  
Ministry of Health – Public Health  
Kenya Medical Research Institute  
Government Chemist  
Kenyatta National Hospital  
Aga Khan Hospital University  
Nestle Kenya Ltd  
Total Lifestyle Change Ltd 
Veekay Ltd  
Kensalt Ltd.  
Kenya Bureau of Standards — Secretariat  
REVISION OF KENYA STANDARDS  
In order to keep abreast of progress in industry, Kenya Standards shall be regularly reviewed.  Suggestions 
for improvements to published standards, addressed t o the Managing Director, Kenya Bureau of Standards, 
are welcome.  
© Kenya Bureau of Standards, 2020  
Copyright. Users are reminded that by virtue of Section 25 of the Copyright Act, Cap. 130 of 2001 of  the Laws of Kenya, copyright 
subsists in all Kenya Stand ards and except as provided under Section 25 of this Act, no Kenya Standard produced by Kenya Bureau of 
Standards may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system in any form or transmitted by any means without prior permission in  writing 
from the Managing Director.   DKS 2922 -1:2020 First  Edition  
  
 
Edible insects   
Part 1:  
Edible insects’  products  — Specification  
 
 
Kenya Bureau of Standards,  Popo Road, Off Mombasa Road,  
P.O. Box 54974 - 00200,  Nairobi, Kenya  
 +254 020 6948000, + 254 722202137, + 254 734600471  
 info@kebs.org  
 @KEBS_ke  
 Kenya  bureau of standards ( KEBS )  
  
 
 Foreword  
This Kenya Standard was prepared by the Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses  under the guidance of 
the Standards Projects Committee, and it is in accordance with the procedures of the Kenya Bureau of 
Standards.  
There is increased demand to seek alternative sources of nutritious products to supplement existing traditional 
sources of nutrients such as meat, fruits, cereals and legumes . This is mainly due to decreased agricultural 
output of this  products, increase of population, reduced agricultural land, rural -urban migration among other 
reasons. Recent scientific evidences are pointing at the great unexploited potential that edible insects possess 
in contributing to the overall food security an d nutrition. There is a lot of innovation currently going on to 
introduce edible insects as alternative nutrient enhancing ingredients to existing food products. It is against 
this emerging trend that this standard was developed to particular ly provide a basis of assuring the general 
safety and quality of dried insect products. The standards address  itself to parameters that are directly related 
to safety and quality of the products such as moisture contents which has an effect on keeping quality of the 
products, heavy metal and microbiological contaminations owing to susceptibility of the insects to 
contaminations as well as offering guidance to packaging and labelling.  
During the preparation of this s tandard reference was made to  the following document : 
FAO 2013.Edible insects Future prospects for food and feed security. FAO, Rome  
IPIFF Guide on Good Hygiene Practices for European Union of insects as food and feed  
US 2146:2019 Edible insects - Specification  
Rumpold, Birgit & Schlüter, Oliver. (2015). Inse ct-based protein sources and their potential for human 
consumption: Nutritional composition and processing. Animal Frontiers. 5. 20 -24. 10.2527/af.2015 -0015.  
Acknowledgement is hereby made for the  assistance derived from these  source s. 
 DRAFT KENYA STANDARD  DKS 2922 -1:2020  
 
 © KEBS 2020   
 Edible Insects Products  — Specification  
1 Scope  
This Draft Kenya standard specifies the requirements, sampling and test methods for edible  insect s’ products  
intended for human consumption . 
2 Normative references  
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content constitutes 
requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, 
the latest edition of the referenced d ocument (including any amendments) applies.  
DKS 2921 , Primary production of Insects for Food and Feed — Code of practice  
KS CODEX STAN 192 , Codex General standard for Food Additives  
KS EAS 38 , Labeling of prepackaged foods - General requirements   
KS EAS 39 , Hygiene in the food and drink manufacturing industry - Code of practice  
KS EAS 804, Claims on food — General requirements  
KS EAS 805, Use of nutrition and health claims — Requirements  
KS ISO 4833 -1, Microbiology of the food chain -Horizontal method for the enumeration of microorganisms Part 
1: Colony count at 30 ºC by the pour plate technique  
KS ISO 5983 -1, Animal feeding stuffs - Determination of nitrogen content and calculation of crude protein 
content Part 1: Kjeldahl method  
KS ISO 5985 , Animal feedin g stuffs - Determination of ash  insoluble in hydrochloric acid  
KS ISO 6633 , Fruits, vegetables and derived products - Determination of lead content - Flameless atomic 
absorption spectrometric method  
KS ISO 6496 , Animal feeding stuffs - Determination of moi sture an d other volatile matter content  
KS ISO 6579 -1 Microbiology of the food chain -Horizontal method for the detection, enumeration and 
serotyping of Salmonella -Part 1:  Detection of Salmonella spp   
KS ISO 6888 -1, Microbiology of food and animal feeding s tuffs - Horizontal method for the enumeration of 
coagulase -positive staphylococci (staphylococcus Aureus and other soecies) - Part 1: Technique using baird -
pac  
KS ISO 10272 -1, Microbiology of the food chain -Horizontal method for detection and enumeration of 
Campylobacter spp. Part 1:Detection method  
KS ISO 11290 -2, Microbiology of the food chain -Horizontal method for the detection and enumeration of 
Listeria monocytogenes and of Listeria spp. Part 2: Enumeration method.  / Meat and Poultry Products  
KS ISO 16649 -2, Microbiology of food and animal feeding stuffs - Horizontal method for the enumeration of B -
glucuronidase -positive Escherichia coli - Part 1: Colony -count technique at 44 using membranes and 5 -
bromo -4  
KS ISO 13547 -2, Copper, lead, zinc and nickel  sulphide Concentrates -Determination of arsenic Part 2: Acid 
digestion and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometric method   
KS ISO 21527 -2, Microbiology of food and animal feeding stuffs - Horizontal method for the enumeration of 
yeasts and  moulds - Part 2: Colony count technique in products with water activity less than or equal to 0,95  
ISO 22964:2017 Microbiology of the food chain — horizontal method for the detection of cronobacter spp.  
KS ISO 27085,  Animal feeding stuffs - Determination of calcium, sodium, phosphorus, magnesium, 
potassium, iron, zinc, coppe r, manganese, cobalt, molybdenum, arsenic, lead and cadmium by ICP -AES 
Public Health Act  Cap 242  DKS 2922 -1:2020  
2 © KEBS: 2020 : – All rights reserved  
 Food Drugs and Chemicals Substances Act , Cap. 254 
Weights and Measures  Act Cap. 513  
3 Terms and d efinition s 
For the purposes of this document, the following term and definition apply:  
3.1 
Edible insect Product  
Is a product that has been processed from edible insects harvested either from domesticated farms or from 
the wild. The product may be presented in the form of whole insect, milled, paste, liquid/aqueous  or in powder 
form 
 
3.2 
Whole insect Product  
Is an edible insect product either whole or where  some inedible parts of the insects such as wings , gut hair 
have been removed during or after drying  
3.3 
Powdered  insect Product  
Is particulate product of dried i nsects that is achieved by milling or grinding dry whole insect product  
4 Requirements  
4.1 General requirements  
4.1.1  Edible insects intended to be processed into dried edible  insect products shall be to the minimum 
harvested and processed in accordance to DKS 2921 . Where the insects are farmed, they shall comply fully to 
DKS 2921 . 
4.1.2  Dried edible i nsect s’ products  shall be:  
a) presented in  either whole or granulated or powder  form and either fried or dried  
b) free from adulterants, extraneous material and objectionable odour.  
c) free from infestation and contamination from pests  
4.2 Specific requirements  
Dried e dible insects’ products shall conform to the specific requirements when  tested with the test methods 
described in table : 
Table 1 — Requirements  for dried insects’  products - specification  
s/n Parameter  Limits, %,  Test method  
i).  Moisture Content , m/m , max 12 KS ISO 6496  
ii).  Protein Conten t % m/m min.  15 KS ISO 5983 -1 
iii).  Acid insoluble ash, (max), %, m/m  1 KS ISO 5985  
 DKS 2922 -1:2020  
© KEBS 2020  – All rights reserved  3 
 6 Optional ingredients  
Dried edible insect products may contain other approved food ingredients to enhance flavour and palatability 
such as edible salt, seasonings and herbs complying with relevant Kenya Standard s.  
7 Food additives  
Only permitted food additives in accordance with  KS CODEX STAN 192  for similar products may be used.  
8 Hygiene  
8.1 The dried insects’ products shall be prepared and packaged in premises built and maintained under 
hygienic condition in accordance with Public Health Act Cap 242, the Food Drugs and Chemicals Substances 
Act, Cap. 254 of the Laws of Kenya and KS EAS 39 . 
8.2 Dried insects’ products  shall be free from any pathogenic microorganism and shall in particular comply 
with the microbiological requirements indicated in Table 2  when tested in accordance with the test methods 
specified therein . 
Table 2 — Microbiological limits for dried Insect prod ucts 
S/N Type of micro -organism  Maximum number 
of counts  Test method  
i.  Total Aerobic Counts at 30 oC, 
CFU/g  105 KS ISO 4833 -1 
ii.  Salmonella  in  25 g Shall be absent  KS ISO 6579 -1 
iii.  E. Coli, CFU/g  Less than 10a KS ISO 16649 -2 
iv.  Coagulase positive Staphylococc i 
aureas   CFU/g  Less than 10  KS ISO 6888 -1 
v.  Listeria  monocytogenes , CFU/25g  Absent  KS ISO 11290 -2 
vi.  Cronobacter  spp.(Enterobacter  
sakazakii)  CFU/10g  Absent  ISO 22964  
vii.  Campylobacter , CFU/25g  Absent  KS ISO 10272 -1: 
viii.  Yeast and moulds  CFU/g  102 KS ISO 21527 -2 
a For ready to use. Products that will require further processing before consumption as per 
the direction of use a maximum of 102 shall apply.  
 
9 Contaminants  
9.1 Heavy Metal Contaminants  
Dried Insect Products  shall not contain heavy metal contaminants in amounts established under WHO or FAO 
to cause adverse effect to health and in particular shall comply with the limits indicated in Table 3  when tested 
in accordance with the test methods specified therein . DKS 2922 -1:2020  
4 © KEBS: 2020 : – All rights reserved  
  
 
 
Table 3  — Limits for heavy metal contaminants  for edible  insects products  
S/N Contaminant  Max. limit , 
mg/kg  Test method  
i.  Lead (Pb)  0.5 KS ISO 6633  
ii.  Arsenic (Ar)  0.1 KS ISO 13547 -2 
iii.  Cadmium  0.4 KS ISO 27085  
 
9.2 Mycotoxins  
Dried edible insects’ products shall have a maximum of 10 µg/Kg of Total aflatoxin and a maximum of 5 µg/ 
Kg of Aflatoxin B 1 
10 Packaging and labelling  
10.1 Packaging  
10.1.1  The edible Insects products  shall be packaged in food grade materials that will ensure the safety and 
integrity of the product throughout the shelf life.  
10.1.2  The fill of the container shall be in accordance with the Weights and Measures Act Cap. 513 of the 
Laws of Kenya.  
10.2 Labelling  
10.2.1  In addition to the l abelling requirements of KS EAS 38, the label shall include  the following 
information : 
a) name o f the product shall be  either  ‘Dried whole insect ’ or ‘Dried powdered insects’ or ‘Dried milled 
insects’  or ‘fried insect product s’ or ‘grinded/ground insect products’ ; 
b) Declare the insect by common name  and biological name in brackets ; 
c) Direction for use of the product ; and  
d) storage instructions.  
10.2.2  Any health and/or nutrition claim on dried insect products  shall conform to the provisions of KS EAS 
804 and KS EAS 805 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 DKS 2922 -1:2020  
2 © KEBS: 2020 : – All rights reserved  
  
 
 
Annex A  
(Informative)  
Potential species for production of edible insect products  
As a guide, the latest  publication of the  list of edible insects of the world  as compiled and published  by 
Wageningen University web portal ( https://www.wur.nl/en/Research -Results/Chair -groups/Plant -
Sciences/L aboratory -of-Entomology/Edible -insects/Worldwide -species -list.htm ) may be used to guide on the 
potential species. Compendium (s) developed, validated and published by national research centres and local 
universities may also be used as a reference. Where a  local list has been developed it shall be preferred.   
 
 
 
 DKS 2922 -1:2020    
 
© KEBS 2020 – All rights reserved