Dados do Trabalho

Título

JAMAICAN FIELD CRICKET (Gryllus assimilis) POWDER FOR THE PRODUCTION OF PROTEIN RICH WHEAT BREADS

Introdução

The expected growth in population and income will increase the environmental impacts related to food production. Thus, there is a need for nutritious food options with lower environmental impacts. Edible insects have been suggested as an alternative, as they offer nutritional content and have a lower environmental impact when compared to traditional food sources. Besides, to increase their acceptability, their inclusion in processed foods, such as breadmaking products, has been employed. Therefore, this study aimed to produce enriched wheat breads through the inclusion of the Jamaican field cricket, JFC (Gryllus assimilis) powder.

Material e Métodos

11 formulations were developed containing fixed amounts of wheat flour (100%), salt (2%), yeast (3%) and JFC powder (11%) and variable amounts of mono- and diglycerides (0 – 0.8 %), ascorbic acid (0 – 200 ppm) and water (50 – 70 %), according to a 2³ factorial design. The composition (moisture, protein, lipid, ash) of the insect powder and the breads were analyzed. Specific volume, texture, baking loss, color, and crumb structure of the breads were determined. To differentiate the samples principal component analysis was employed.

Resultados e Discussão

JFC powder presented the following composition (%, dry basis): moisture, 7.4; protein, 63.8; lipid, 20.2 and ash, 3.8. The enriched breads exhibited enhanced nutritional composition (%, dry basis: protein, 24.9; lipid, 5.5 and ash, 3.7) in comparison with the control (%, dry basis: protein, 14.2; lipid, 0.2 and ash, 2.9). Enriched breads with 60% and 70% water content showed higher specific volume (3.51 – 4.17 cm3.g-1) and lower hardness (619 – 1285 N) than those of the control – with 60% water - (2.62 cm3.g-1 and 1600 N, respectively). Nonetheless, samples with the higher water content (70%) had poor crumb uniformity, while the ones with 60% showed a similar crumb appearance to the control.

Conclusão

The increased water in the 70 % samples was responsible for the enhanced volume and reduced hardness, and can be hypothesized that the insect lipids act as a shortening, also enhancing volume and hardness. It can be concluded, that the JFC powder can be used to enhance the nutritional and techno-functional properties of wheat breads.