The effect of dietary Salvia hispanica seed on the content of n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in tissues of selected animal species, including edible insects

• Deposition of LC-PUFAn-3 increases in sequence breast meat < thigh meat < eggs.
• Conversion of αLnn to LC-PUFAn-3 in eggs is substantially higher than in meat.
• Increase of dietary αLnn decreases conversion efficacy to LC-PUFAn-3 in meat/eggs.
• Chia seed-fed cricket deposited EPA, which suggests a presence of Δ6-desaturase.

The aim of the study was to compare the deposition of n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFAn-3) in chicken breast meat (BM), thigh meat, quail eggs (QE) and tissues of two edible insect species (cricket [CR] and giant mealworm beetle [MB]) when feeding the animals with different amounts of Salvia hispanica seeds (SHS; source of α-linolenic acid, αLnn). The highest (P < 0.05) LC-PUFAn-3 concentration in BM, TM and QE (11.7, 36.5 and 106 mg/100 g of fresh matter) was reached with the dietary SHS content of 60 g kg−1 (chickens) and 75 g kg−1 (quails), respectively. The eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) concentration in CR fed the diet containing 500 g kg−1 of SHS was 17 mg/100 g, which suggests a presence of Δ6- and Δ5-desaturases. When adjusted for changing αLnn intake, LC-PUFAn-3 content in BM, TM, QE and CR was 14, 31, 76 and 20 mg/100 g. Percentage of αLnn deposited in a given tissue that was converted to LC-PUFAn-3 in this tissue (tissue LC-PUFAn-3/tissue αLnn × 100, in %; Y) decreased (P < 0.001) with increasing dietary αLnn (mg/100 g) both in BM + TM (taken as a one set; Y = 39.2 − 0.03X, R2 = 0.35) and QM (Y = 75.6 − 0.04X, R2 = 0.75).