Buckwheat-pasta enriched with silkworm powder: Technological analysis and sensory evaluation

Our study presents the development and technological and sensory evaluation of silkworm enriched buckwheat pasta. Several publications deal recently with the enrichment of different food products with insects. Grain based products seem to be a promising field, due to the wide product range and their popularity. Though buckwheat is healthy, it is less liked by the consumers, because of its characteristic flavour profile. Our aim was to develop a silkworm enriched buckwheat pasta, which merges the advantages of the base materials, and masks the disliked flavour of buckwheat. Three products were created, insect-free, 5 g and 10 g silkworm/100 g pasta, respectively. Our calculations showed that silkworm powder increases the nutritional value of buckwheat pasta; the 5 g and 10 g/100 g enriched products had higher protein content, with reduced energy value. According to technological analyses silkworm reduces optimum cooking time, while increases the acidity of pastas over storage. Consumer sensory analysis proved that 10 g silkworm/100 g pasta product received the highest overall acceptance, while lowest values were assigned to the insect-free product. According to the obtained results, insect powder is a suitable material for enriching less liked, but basically healthy products.