Differentiation of Insect Flours by Elemental Analysis and Chemometrics: A Study Using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS).

BACKGROUND

This study aimed to validate a method for characterizing and quantifying the multi-elemental profiles of different insect flours to enable their distinction, identification, and quality assessment. The focus was on three insect species: cricket ( ), buffalo worm (), and mealworm ( ).

METHODS

Mealworms were powdered in the laboratory through mechanical processing. Sample analysis involved acid digestion using a microwave digester, followed by profiling with Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). This technique enabled rapid, multi-elemental analysis at trace levels. Chemometric methods, including Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for exploratory analysis, Covariance Selection-Linear Discriminant Analysis (CovSel-LDA), alongside forward stepwise LDA classification methods, were applied and compared.

RESULTS

ICP-MS accurately detected elements at micro trace levels. Both classification models, based on different variable selection methods and externally validated on a test set comprising 45% of the available samples, proved effective in classifying samples based on slightly different pools of trace elements. CovSel-LDA selected Mg and Se, whereas the stepwise-LDA focused on Mg, K, and Mn.

CONCLUSIONS

the validated methods demonstrated high accuracy and generalizability, supporting their potential use in food industry applications. This model could assist in quality control, facilitating the introduction of insect-based flour into European and international markets as novel foods.