Edible insects are advocated as sustainable and healthy food and feed.However,commercially produced insects are often low in n-3 fatty acids and have suboptimal n-6/n-3 ratios.A certain amount and proportion of these FAs is required to optimize human health.Flaxseed oil consists primarily (57％) out of alpha-linolenic acid.An experiment was conducted to quantify the effect of flaxseed oil provision on fatty acid composition and to determine the quantity needed to attain a beneficial n-6/n-3 ratio.Three species were used in the experiment:house crickets (Acheta domesticus [L.]),lesser mealworms (Alphitobius diaperinus [Pfanzer]) and black soldier flies (Hermetia illucens [L.]).These were provided with either a control diet or a diet enriched with 1％,2％,or 4％ flaxseed oil during their larval/nymphal stage.Fatty acid profiles of diets and insects were determined via GC-MS.The three species had distinct fatty acid profiles on all four diets,but responded similarly to flaxseed oil addition.For each percent added to the diet,the alpha-linolenic acid content of the insects increased by 2.3％-2.7％.Four percent addition increased the n-3 fatty acid content 10-20 fold in the three species and thereby strongly decreased n-6/n-3 ratios from 18-36 to 0.8-2.4.A ratio below 5 is considered optimal for human health and was achieved by 2％ flaxseed oil inclusion for house crickets and lesser mealworms,and at 1％ inclusion for black soldier flies.Adding a source of n-3 fatty acids to insect diets can thus improve the nutritional quality of insects.