Analysis of wheat flour-insect powder mixtures based on their near infrared spectra

Eszter Benes; Barbara Biró; Marietta Fodor; Attila Gere

doi:10.1016/j.fochx.2022.100266

Analysis of wheat flour-insect powder mixtures based on their near infrared spectra

Food Chem X. 2022 Feb 24:13:100266. doi: 10.1016/j.fochx.2022.100266. eCollection 2022 Mar 30.

Authors

Eszter Benes¹, Barbara Biró², Marietta Fodor¹, Attila Gere²

Affiliations

¹ Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Institute of Food Science and Technology, Department of Food and Analytical Chemistry, H-1118 Budapest, Villányi út, 29-43, Hungary.
² Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Institute of Food Science and Technology, Department of Postharvest, Supply Chain, Commerce and Sensory Science, H-1118 Budapest, Villányi út 29-43, Hungary.

Abstract

Insects are gaining more and more space in food and feed sectors, creating an intense scientific interest towards insects as food ingredients. Several papers deal with cereal-based products complemented by insect powder in the past few years. However, adulteration and quality control of such products present some hot topics for researchers, e.g., how can we justify the amounts and/or species of the insects used in the given products? Our paper aims to answer such questions by analysing seven edible insect powders of different species independently. The mixtures with wheat flour were analysed using near infrared spectroscopy and chemometric methods. Not only powders of different species were clearly differentiated, but also mixtures created by different amounts of wheat flour. Prediction of insect content showed 0.65% cross-validated error. The proposed methodology gives an excellent tool for quality control of insect-based cereal food products.

Keywords: Edible insect; Entomophagy; Near infrared spectroscopy; Quality control; Wheat flour.