Recovery and techno-functionality of flours and proteins from two edible insect species: Meal worm (Tenebrio molitor) and black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) larvae

Sara Bußler; Birgit A Rumpold; Elisabeth Jander; Harshadrai M Rawel; Oliver K Schlüter

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2016.e00218

Recovery and techno-functionality of flours and proteins from two edible insect species: Meal worm (Tenebrio molitor) and black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) larvae

Heliyon. 2016 Dec 22;2(12):e00218. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2016.e00218. eCollection 2016 Dec.

Authors

Sara Bußler¹, Birgit A Rumpold¹, Elisabeth Jander², Harshadrai M Rawel², Oliver K Schlüter¹

Affiliations

¹ Quality and Safety of Food and Feed, Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB), Max-Eyth-Allee 100, 14469 Potsdam, Germany.
² Institute of Nutritional Science, University of Potsdam, Arthur-Scheunert-Allee 114-116, D-14558 Nuthetal, Germany.

Abstract

Depending on the species, edible insects are highly nutritious and thus represent a noteworthy alternative food and feed source. The current work investigates the protein extractability and techno-functionality of insect flour fractions recovered from Tenebrio molitor and Hermetia illucens. T. molitor and H. illucens flours contained about 20% crude fat and 60% and 36 % crude protein, respectively. Defatting reduced the crude fat content to 2.8% (T. molitor) and 8.8% (H. illucens) and increased the crude protein content to 68% and 47%, respectively. To isolate proteins from the flours, protein solubility was optimized by varying the pH, the ionic strength, and the extraction temperature of the solvent. All products and by-products accumulated in the protein production process were characterized by composition, selected techno-functional properties, protein solubility, composition and structure as well as their microbial load.

Keywords: Food Science.