Caparros Megido Rudy, Desmedt Sandrine, Blecker Christophe, Béra François, Haubruge Éric, Alabi Taofic, Francis Frédéric
Functional and Evolutionary Entomology, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Passage des Déportés, 2, Gembloux 5030, Belgium.
Food Science and Formulation, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Passage des Déportés, 2, Gembloux 5030, Belgium.
Insects. 2017 Jan 13;8(1):12. doi: 10.3390/insects8010012.
Edible insects are gaining more and more attention as a sustainable source of animal protein for food and feed in the future. In Belgium, some insect products can be found on the market, and consumers are sourcing fresh insects from fishing stores or towards traditional markets to find exotic insects that are illegal and not sanitarily controlled. From this perspective, this study aims to characterize the microbial load of edible insects found in Belgium (i.e., fresh mealworms and house crickets from European farms and smoked termites and caterpillars from a traditional Congolese market) and to evaluate the efficiency of different processing methods (blanching for all species and freeze-drying and sterilization for European species) in reducing microorganism counts. All untreated insect samples had a total aerobic count higher than the limit for fresh minced meat (6.7 log cfu/g). Nevertheless, a species-dependent blanching step has led to a reduction of the total aerobic count under this limit, except for one caterpillar species. Freeze-drying and sterilization treatments on European species were also effective in reducing the total aerobic count. Yeast and mold counts for untreated insects were above the Good Manufacturing Practice limits for raw meat, but all treatments attained a reduction of these microorganisms under this limit. These results confirmed that fresh insects, but also smoked insects from non-European trades, need a cooking step (at least composed of a first blanching step) before consumption. Therefore, blanching timing for each studied insect species is proposed and discussed.
食用昆虫作为未来可持续的动物蛋白食物和饲料来源，正越来越受到关注。在比利时，市场上能找到一些昆虫产品，消费者会从渔具店或前往传统市场寻找新鲜昆虫，而这些外来昆虫是非法的且不受卫生管控。从这个角度来看，本研究旨在表征在比利时发现的食用昆虫的微生物负荷（即来自欧洲农场的新鲜黄粉虫和家蟋蟀，以及来自刚果传统市场的烟熏白蚁和毛虫），并评估不同加工方法（所有物种均进行烫漂，欧洲物种进行冷冻干燥和杀菌）在减少微生物数量方面的效果。所有未处理的昆虫样本的需氧菌总数均高于新鲜碎肉的限量（6.7 log cfu/g）。然而，除了一种毛虫物种外，依赖物种的烫漂步骤已使需氧菌总数降至该限量以下。对欧洲物种进行的冷冻干燥和杀菌处理在减少需氧菌总数方面也很有效。未处理昆虫的酵母菌和霉菌数量高于生肉的良好生产规范限量，但所有处理均使这些微生物数量降至该限量以下。这些结果证实，新鲜昆虫以及来自非欧洲贸易的烟熏昆虫在食用前需要进行烹饪步骤（至少包括第一步烫漂）。因此，针对每种研究的昆虫物种提出并讨论了烫漂时间。
