This review summarizes the current trends related to insect as food resources among consumers, industry, and academia. In Western societies, edible insects have a greater potential as animal feed than as human food because of cultural biases associated with harmful insects, although the abundant characteristics of edible insects should benefit human health. Nevertheless, many countries in Asia, Oceania, Africa, and Latin America utilize insects as a major protein source. Using insects can potentially solve problems related to the conventional food-supply chain, including global water, land, and energy deficits. Academic, industry, and government-led efforts have attempted to reduce negative perceptions of insects through developing palatable processing methods, as well as providing descriptions of health benefits and explaining the necessity of reducing reliance on other food sources. Our overview reveals that entomophagy is experiencing a steady increase worldwide, despite its unfamiliarity to the consumers influenced by Western eating habits.

The effects of replacing pork meat with yellow mealworms on the physicochemical properties and sensory characteristics of frankfurters were investigated in this study. The control (50% pork ham), T1 (45% pork ham + 5% yellow mealworm), T2 (40% pork ham + 10% yellow mealworm), T3 (35% pork ham + 15% yellow mealworm), T4 (30% pork ham + 20% yellow mealworm), T5 (25% pork ham + 25% yellow mealworm), and T6 (20% pork ham + 30% yellow mealworm) were prepared, replacing lean pork meat with yellow mealworm. The moisture content, lightness, sarcoplasmic protein solubility, hardness, gumminess, chewiness, and apparent viscosity of frankfurters with yellow mealworm were lower than those of the control (p<0.05), whereas the content of protein and ash, pH, and yellowness of frankfurters with yellow mealworm were higher than those of the control (p<0.05). The fat content of frankfurters in T1 (p<0.05) was the highest, and the fat content of treatments decreased with increasing yellow mealworm concentrations (p0.05). Thus, the results of this study showed that replacing lean pork meat with up to 10% yellow mealworm successfully maintained the quality of frankfurters at a level similar to that of the regular control frankfurters.

Physicochemical Properties of Meat Batter Added with Edible Silkworm Pupae (Bombyx mori) and Transglutaminase edible insects;silkworm pupae;Bombyx mori;transglutaminase;meat batter; This study was conducted to investigate the physicochemical properties of meat batters prepared with fresh pork meat, back fat, water, and salt and formulated with three different amounts (5%, 10%, and 15%) of silkworm pupae (Bombyx mori) powder and transglutaminase (TG). Meat batters formulated with silkworm pupae powder showed significantly higher contents of protein and ash than control batter. Addition of silkworm pupae to batter also showed significantly lower cooking loss than the control. Moreover, meat batter containing 15% silkworm pupae showed no significant difference in redness value compared to the control. In addition, pH, viscosity, hardness, gumminess, and chewiness were improved after the addition of silkworm pupae. Furthermore, meat batter formulated with TG and silkworm pupae showed improved hardness, gumminess, chewiness and viscosity compared to control batter. Addition of 1% TG with 15% silkworm pupae to meat batter resulted in significantly higher pH, textures, and viscosity. Our data suggest that both silkworm pupae and TG can be added to meat batter to improve its physicochemical properties. Therefore, combination of silkworm pupae and TG could be a new nutritional and functional source for meat products.

The amino acid composition, protein quality, and protein functionality of protein solution extracted from three edible insect species were investigated. We used 0.02% ascorbic acid and 0.58 M saline solution to extract water-soluble and salt-soluble proteins from the three insect species. Extracted protein solutions of Tenebrio molitor (TM), Allomyrina dichotoma (AD), and Protaetia brevitarsis seulensis (PB) were divided into six groups, according to species and solubility: WTM, WAD, WPB (water-soluble), and STM, SAD, and SPB (salt-soluble). Defatted TM had the highest protein content, but its protein solubility was the lowest, for both water and saline solutions. Amino acid composition differed by edible insect species and buffer type; SPB had the highest protein quality, followed by WPB. PB had a higher pH than the other species. Color values also differed among species. SPB had abundant high molecular weight proteins, compared with other treatments; and also had the highest foaming capacity, foam stability, and emulsifying capacity. In conclusion, PB is a good source of functional protein compared with the other studied species. Additionally, protein extraction using saline solution is promising as a useful method for improving edible insect protein functionality.