I have looked into buying canned insects for using in recipes. Cricket salad on toasted bread anyone? But I could not find any canned insects. Thailand Unique has canned insects and there is the Can–O line of products from Zoo Med’s (pet food supplier). These are just dried insects put into cans! Compare dehydrated chicken that you would find in Ramen noodle cups to canned chicken. The quality is much better in a canned product.

Insects will spoil in ambient condition without processing. Dehydration is a great option for food preservation. I think that canning is even better. Canned insects will have a long shelf life, are safe, have high nutritional quality and are easy to use. I would love to have a few cans of meal worms or crickets in my fallout shelter (if I had one).

The process would be similar to canning chicken or other meat. I recommend blanching first then putting insect into jars and topping it off with seasoned water. Process the jars for 90 minutes at 15 PSI.

While we are on the topic of food preservation, freezing is also a great way to store insects. The best analogy for freezing insects is freezing shrimp. Cook them first or not. Just pop them out of your freezer when you are ready to cook them.