Insect processing for food and feed: A review of drying methods

Abstract

Production of insects for food and feed purposes is rapidly emerging in Europe, filling an important niche of locally supplied protein and fat sources with improved environmental sustainability. Processing of insect biomass is becoming of utmost importance to fulfill the requirements for safe edible biomass and find efficient ways to reduce potential biological and chemical hazards. Current methods of insect biomass processing, well-developed, and established in food and feed industry, rely on thermal treatment (blanching, boiling, drying, cooling, freezing, freeze drying), mechanical (grinding, pressing, milling), and fractionation processes (extraction, purification, separation, centrifugation). This article summarizes and reviews recent activities performed by different interdisciplinary research groups dealing with insect drying. The diverse techniques for insect drying are discussed with the objective of identifying the ones with the highest economic, environmental, and social potential. Moreover, the quality attributes of insects dried with different methods (starting from simple sun drying and finishing with Pulsed Electric Fields enhanced lyophilization) are analyzed. Finally, selected legal aspects concerning usage of dried insects as food are presented.