No abstract

Sensory acceptability of the consumption of whole baked house crickets by assessors in the Czech Republic was investigated. The main aim was to observe attitudes to eating edible insects before and after their tasting and to assess the extent of the effect of prejudices. Hedonic evaluation of the overall acceptability of edible insects was carried out under laboratory conditions by trained assessors. Of the 98 panellists, 68 were willing to evaluate the sample visually and then by tasting. They showed statistically significant differences (P &lt; 0.0001) in overall pleasantness before tasting (40 ± 22%) and after tasting (61 ± 17%). No statistically significant differences between male and female assessors were observed, either before or after tasting. Women and younger assessors were slightly more open to entomophagy, but there were no statistically significant differences between males and females or between the two age categories (18–25 and 26–45 years of age) in the results. The preferred methods of culinary preparation of edible insects that the respondents would choose were baking, roasting and frying.<br /><br />

This study compared different methods of determining starch digestibility (in vivo vs in vitro) in wheat grains and evaluated the influence of extrusion on digestibility. In vivo starch digestibility was determined in broiler chickens by calculating the residual starch content in their ilea and the digestibility using a chromium oxide indicator. In vitro digestibility was examined using pepsin and pancreatin. During in vivo testing, the highest digestibility coefficient (DC) was achieved by the Bonanza variety in its extruded form (91.19 ± 0.40%). In contrast, the lowest DC was achieved by the Tobak variety in its non-extruded form (81.45 ± 1.92%). Generally, a higher DC was observed in vivo for extruded forms of wheat. During in vitro testing, the highest DC was achieved by the Stefii variety in its non-extruded form (96.10 ± 0.55%), whereas the lowest DC was observed in the Yetti variety in its extruded form (49.72 ± 0.41%). Overall, the in vitro experiments did not exhibit significant differences between extruded and non-extruded forms of wheat. Linear regression analysis showed a strong relationship (r² = 0.860; 85.98%) between in vivo- and in vitro-derived DC values in all wheat varieties, both in extruded and non-extruded forms. The study showed that in vivo testing is a suitable method for the determination and control of starch levels in extruded materials. However, despite the accuracy of this technique, it is also very demanding in terms of time, space, equipment, and methodological knowledge. Therefore, based on the strong correlation between the in vivo and in vitro assays, we recommend in vitro digestibility testing as a preferable alternative.

A major part of wheat production is channelized towards animal feed. In the present experiment, we first aimed to determine the relationship of the crude protein (CP) content and the individual fractions (albumin + globulin, gliadin, glutenin) of wheat varieties (with or without the rye translocation 1B/1R) with the digestibility, feed intake, feed conversion, and protein efficiency ratio (PER) of the feed in ROSS 308 chicken broilers. Secondly, we determined the CP content, biological value, net protein utilization, and effect of various fibre components of the same wheat lines in Wistar rats. Seven out of sixteen wheat varieties studied herein included the 1B/1R translocation. Nutritional values were evaluated by the Weende analysis using the Kjeldahl and the Henneberg–Stohmann methods. Moreover, acid detergent fibre and neutral detergent fibre contents, CP digestibility and PER were determined. In broiler chickens, no statistically significant differences were found. In rats, however, the presence of 1B/1R significantly increased the CP content, affecting the nutritional value. This should be considered prior to the indiscriminate use of otherwise undesirable wheat varieties as animal feed.