Impact of the Addition of Tenebrio molitor and Hermetia illucens on the Physicochemical and Sensory Quality of Cooked Meat Products

Abstract

The use of proteins from insects, plants, microalgae, fungi or bacteria as an alternative to proteins of animal origin such as meat, fish, eggs or milk can meet the worldwide protein demand in the future. As the consumption of whole insects might be problematic or unacceptable for many consumers, especially in European countries, the use of homogenized insects or protein extracts from insects for the production of products might be a possibility to overcome general acceptability problems. However, the quality criteria of these products have to be comparable with consumers’ expectations with regard to known products. Therefore, in the present study, we produced a meat product, replaced 10% and 20% of the pork with homogenized larvae of Tenebrio molitor and Hermetia illucens, and determined different physicochemical and sensory parameters at production and during modified atmosphere storage for 21 days. Additionally, the alteration of different bacteria species during this storage was analyzed in challenge tests. After production, the addition of insects resulted in higher cooking losses and pH values in the products with 20% insects, higher pH and yellowness, lower lightness, protein and hardness results in the Hermetia products, as well as higher yellowness and lower protein and hardness values in the cooked meat products with Tenebrio molitor. During modified atmosphere storage, the color differences principally remained, whereas the concentrations of inoculated Bacillus cereus, Listeria monocytogenes and Escherichia coli were not influenced by the addition of insects to the cooked meat products. The sensory results of the insect products, especially at higher concentrations and with Hermetia illucens, worsened during modified atmosphere storage. The addition of homogenized insect larvae, especially at higher concentrations and particularly of Hermetia illucens, influences different physicochemical and sensory parameters of the cooked meat products.

Impact of In Vitro Gastrointestinal Digestion on the Phenolic Bioaccessibility and Bioactive Properties of Insect-Containing Beef Burgers

“…The presence of glycosidic forms of quercetin has also been reported in Carolina locust ( Dissoteira carolina ) as resulting from the absorption of quercetin glycosides from the plant tissues [ 27 ]. Overall, our data on the phenolic composition of insect-added cooked burgers are difficult to compare with the existing literature; in this regard, the majority of the published works are based only on the evaluation of the technological properties of the formulated meat products (such as texture parameters, color, and cooking properties) [ 28 , 29 ]. For example, Cavalheiro et al [ 29 ] recently tested the potential of cricket ( A. domesticus ) flour as a lean meat replacer in the development of beef patties, demonstrating that the incorporation of up to 5.0% ( w / w ) of cricket flour into beef patties was optimal in terms of the composition, technological, sensorial, and cooking properties.…”

Effects of Edible Insect Powders as Meat Partial Substitute on Physicochemical Properties and Storage Stability of Pork Patties

“…Similarly, Choi et al (2017) reported that the addition of yellow worms ( T. molitor L.) to Frankfurt could reduce CIE L*-value but increase CIE a* and CIE b*-value. Lemke et al. (2023) reported that the addition of 20% insects to sausage products reduced in CIE L*-value compared to 10%.…”

The Pulsed Electric Field Treatment Effect on Drying Kinetics and Chosen Quality Aspects of Freeze-Dried Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens) and Yellow Mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) Larvae

“…During the measurements, D65 standard illuminant light source, 8 • angle of viewing, CIE 2 • Standard Observer, and a 30 mm measuring diameter were set. Additionally, based on the obtained L*, a*, and b* color parameter, the total color difference (∆E) was calculated using Equation (7):…”