Insect protein? A new possibility

As we are advancing forward new and new food pattern is revealed, some are really game-changer and some are same as old but with little more added value. People have started inclining towards a vegetarian diet as they are understanding the side effects animal diet have on the environment. Land consumption to greenhouse gasses to the amount of protein provided all these factors matter when one choose their food in this world. Well, a new alternative came up which provide quality protein, emit less greenhouse gas and also consume less land for cultivation but whether public of different countries accept this alternative or not it is still not decided.

Well let’s talk about this new alternative, this new alternative for protein are insects. But how come insect become this new alternative, well according to some journals and also some research papers insects have a high amount of protein and average of 40% and up to 70% on a dry weight basis. It also has a high amount of minerals and vitamins. They also meet the requirement of essential amino acid set up by WHO. Insect protein is also more digestible (76-98%) as compared to plants protein (32%) and a little less than animal protein (100%). This protein can be the best replacement for animal protein because when compared gram to gram with beef, raising insect protein requires 8-14 times less land, 5 times less water and emits 6-13 times fewer greenhouse gases. Now how come they require such small energy to grow, well because insects have an incredible ability to convert their food into their edible body mass.

Now a question arises will the majority of people will like to eat insects. Well, the answer is a little bit different as many people feel disgusted with the sight of an insect, so how come will they eat that but in some eastern countries like Korea people are eating insects from a long time. It has become a part of their food chain and they also like this. You might have seen bear Grylls  in the television show called man vs wild as he speaks about how protein-rich an insect can be.

For people who feel disgusted by the appearance of an insect, instead of direct consumption of such protein they can go for the powdered form of such. As the technology improving day by day people have already started converting insect protein into a powdered form which can be added to protein shakes and also help in fortification of food. Insect protein has opened a new gate for the food industry and there is no doubt such an alternative will flourish in the coming years.

Other application of insect protein

Well we all know egg protein which is one with the highest biological value compared to all protein source have a variety of other an application such as foaming, emulsification ( use in mayonnaise), etc. These properties make egg protein really demandable all over the world. But as for insect protein no such ability is seen so far but egg protein properties are result of decades of research and use of egg protein so as we go forward with insect protein I believe we will be able to find some interesting properties unique to insect proteins.

Food Fortification using Insect protein Possibility or not

There have been many studies related to this topic so let’s get ready for this

1)      Fortification in Snacks

Studies have shown that insect flour incorporation increased the protein content and digestibility of the snack. Well, different types of insect flour were used for example Tenebrio Molitor flour and grasshopper flour for this test. Tenebrio Molitor flour was added in two proportion i.e. in 10% and 20%, the one with 20% have poor textural property whereas the one in which 10% were added show similar properties to the one in which Tenebrio Molitor flour was not added. Grasshopper flour results in brownish colour and a particular flavour of grasshopper which might discourage the customer.

2)      Fortification of pasta

Studies have shown that incorporation of 5% cricket powder into wheat pasta influences the cooking time, colour, texture and flavour the latter being the most distinctive.

Well, still the overall sensory evaluation has shown that the fortified wheat pasta has met with customer expectation, display no significant difference compare to whole wheat pasta. Well, I think it depends on the spices and other things added in pasta… I never tasted such a thing.

Challenges

Well, what do you guys think the challenges would be…. Please comment bellow the challenges you might thing insect protein will face in coming future.

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