Mealworms are considered a nuisance by many people. These insects can be eaten and could be a good alternative to meat. Researchers say they cooked up mealworms with sugar and created a "meat-like" flavor. It could one day be used in convenience foods as a source of additional calories.
The results of the research will be presented at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society.
According to In Hee Cho, the project's principal investigator, eating insects has become of interest because of the rising cost of animal feed.
According to the United Nations, the world's population will reach nearly 11 billion by the end of the century. Feeding them all with animal meat will require a lot of food, water and land resources. Cows release a lot of methane in their burps which contributes to climate change. There are more sustainable sources ofProtein.
"Insects are a good source of nutrition with high amounts of vitamins, minerals and fiber, which is similar to that of meat," says Cho, who is a researcher at Wonkwang University.
Mealworms have an image problem.
People in many parts of the world are not fond of eating insects. Consumer acceptance is not widespread when it comes to companies trying to change people's minds by selling cooked whole mealworms. Cho suggests hiding insects in the form of seasonings inside convenience products in order to get more people to eat meal worms.
The research team wanted to understand the insect's taste. Mealworm aromas were compared from egg to pupa. All of the stages contained volatile hydrocarbons, which evaporate and give off odors. There were aromas of wet soil, shrimp, and sweet corn.
The flavors that were cooked as larvae were compared by a graduate student on the team. Compared to roasted and deep- fried mealworms, steamed mealworms had a sweeter corn-like smell. The compounds found in roasting and frying were similar to the compounds found in meat and seafood.
If mealworms were heated with sugar, they were expected to produce more reaction flavors. Maillard, Strecker and caramelization reactions are some of the reactions that produce reaction flavors. The meat-like and savory flavors are usually the result.
Different manufacturing conditions and ratios of powdered mealworm and sugars were tested by a graduate student in Cho's lab. There were 98 volatile compounds in the samples. The samples were taken to a panel of volunteers to give feedback on which had the best smell. Ten of the reaction flavors were changed based on consumer preferences.
This is the first time that mealworms have been used to make flavors. Cho says that they hope that the results will encourage the convenience food industry to use insects in their products. The next step for the team is to further improve the cooking process to reduce any undesirable or off-flavors in the final flavoring material made from mealworms.
More information: Comparison of aroma profiles from mealworm (Tenebrio molitor)-based reaction flavors optimized by consumer preferences, ACS Fall 2022, www.acs.org/content/acs/en/mee … tings/fall-2022.html
All Rights Reserved © 2024
