DEVELOPMENT AND CHARACTERIZATION OF MEAL FROM GIANT TENEBRIUM LARVAE (Zophobas morio): A FOOD SOURCE APPLICABLE IN THE FOOD INDUSTRY

Population growth has made it imperative to search for new alternative food sources that have less costly, environmentally sustainable production conditions and that have great nutritional value, in particular, high protein value. Within this perspective, insects are potential sources of human food, with approximately 2000 species already used for this purpose, practice known as entomophagy. The giant mealworm (Zophobas morio) proves to be a promising food source due to its high protein content and feed conversion rate in addition to the low cost of cultivation and production when compared to cattle and poultry activities. The aim of this work was to develop and characterize the Zophobas morio larvae meal, envisioning its possible use in the food industry. The larvae were slaughtered by means of thermal shock and, therefore, submitted to the physical processes of cooking, pressing and drying in an oven with air circulation, respectively. The developed meal had its acute toxicity studied, being further characterized through the centesimal composition with determination of carbohydrates by difference and, its physical-chemical stability evaluated by means of pH, Aw and TBARS analyzes at fortnightly intervals, during the 60 day storage. The data obtained was subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey's test at a significance level of 5%. The tenebrio larvae meal was non-toxic, had low moisture (3.39%) and ash (2.49%), high protein (70.49%) and lipid (14.12%) contents, in addition to having showed pH (6.56), Aw (0.37) and TBARS (0.63 mg MDA/kg flour) values stable throughout the storage period. The meal of tenebrio larvae proved to be nutritionally superior to products of animal origin, demonstrating favorable conditions for its direct consumption or even its application in several different formulations of countless other industrialized foods.