Abstract
The processing of insects is paramount to deliver safe and high quality raw materials, ingredients and products for large-scale food and feed applications. Depending upon the nature of the initial material and the desired end product, the processing pathways vary and may include several unit operations currently already used in food and feed processing. Insect processing pathways can involve harvesting, pre-processing, decontamination, further processing, packaging and storage. Several traditional and industrial decontamination methods have been proposed for edible insects, which include smoking, drying, blanching/boiling, marination, cooking, steaming, toasting and their combinations. Further processing steps are employed to produce insect meal, insect flour or extracted insect fractions. Each operation will have a different impact on the chemical and microbiological properties of the final product. Novel food processing technologies (e.g. high pressure processing, pulsed electric field, ultrasound and cold plasma) have shown potential to modify, complement or replace the conventional processing steps in insect processing. These technologies have been tested for microbial decontamination, enzyme inactivation, drying and extraction. Further, these are considered to be environmentally friendly and may be implemented for versatile applications to improve the processing efficiency, safety and quality of insect based products. Future research focuses in insect processing are development of efficient, environmentally friendly and low-cost processes; waste minimisation and incorporation of by-products/co-products.
Highlights
Edible insects have been part of the human diet throughout history (Dobermann et al, 2017)
The present review aims to illustrate the current scientific knowledge in edible insect processing, focusing on the traditional pathways and providing an overview on possible future processing routes
An alternative to vacuum packaging is modified atmosphere packaging (MAP). It has been investigated by Stoops et al (2017), who observed that MAP (60% CO2 40% N2) reduced microbial growth guaranteeing at least 21 days of microbiological stability for insect paste stored at 4 °C (Stoops et al, 2017)
Summary
Edible insects have been part of the human diet throughout history (Dobermann et al, 2017). In order to improve the acceptance of insects and insect products and extend their shelf life, several traditional cooking techniques such as steaming, roasting, smoking, frying, stewing, curing (Ebenebe and Okpoko, 2015; Grabowski and Klein, 2017b; Lautenschläger et al, 2017; Manditsera et al, 2019; Nonaka, 2009; Obopile and Seeletso, 2013; Ramos-Rostro et al, 2016; Shockley et al, 2018) have been proposed. In order to guarantee high safety standard for the final consumer, suitable processing pathways should be integrated in the insect value chain In this context, the present review aims to illustrate the current scientific knowledge in edible insect processing, focusing on the traditional pathways and providing an overview on possible future processing routes
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