Insects associated with food products stored in the urban area of Culiacan Sinaloa, Mexico

Insects associated with stored produce damage a wide variety of foods in homes and grocery stores, causing poor nutritional quality and even health risk in consumers. The objective of this study was to determine the species and abundance of insects associated with dry food products stored in homes and grocery stores of the city of Culiacan, Sinaloa. Food products were obtained. in houses or grocery stores, with signs of damage by insectes or their presence. which were transferred to the laboratory. where the imagos were isolated immature and dry food samples were deposited in adult emergency chambers because the identification was carried out by morphology in the imago stage. 181 insects belonging to 8 species were collected. of which Oryzaephilus mercator (Fauvel), Necrobia rufipes (De Greer), Plodia interpunctella (Hubner) and Cadra cautella (Walker represent new records for the state of Sinaloa. The highest number of insects that belong mainly to the order coleoptera were collected in homes (U = 96.000, n = 154, P = 0.004). N. rufipes. T. castaneum (Herbst) and P. interpunctella were the most common species at the study sites and of the food samples collected. dog food and flour were the most affected. For the first time, the abundance of insect pests of stored food products was characterized and determined in an urban area of Sinaloa. an agriculturally important state in Mexico. Identifying taxonomically the species that infest stored products will allow to determine the economic and health risk that they represent for the areas where they were found. It is also useful in developing and applying the appropriate entomological control that will maintain the quality and integrity of the products.