Big opportunities for tiny bugs: Processing effects on the techno-functionality and digestibility of edible insects

Background: Edible insects gain soaring interest as promising alternative sources of nutrients and other functional materials. Yet, their consumer acceptance is still a challenge, due to numerous reasons, ranging from cultural taboos to safety concerns over possible toxicity, allergenicity, or microbial loads. Scope and approach: In order to extend insect consumption, efforts are made to eliminate the insect appearance and incorporate them into acceptable and palatable foods. However, there is scant data elucidating the impact of processing on the nutritional and physicochemical properties of this unique animal kingdom. This review examines the current body of evidence relating processing to the physicochemical properties of insects, with an emphasis on the potential ramifications to their digestive fate and bioaccessibility of bioactive moieties. Key findings and conclusions: Current literature indicates that all stages of insect processing impact both compatibility to desired food matrices and product properties. However, scant studies discuss the ramifications of processing on protein quality data, such as digestibility scores. This review emphasizes the possible implications of post-harvest processing techniques, mainly thermal processing, drying, enzymatic modifications, fermentation and extractions. Interestingly, it is shown that different insect genus have varying responsiveness to processing with diverse implications to in vitro digestibility. Taking consumer health to heart, future insect-based food solutions should rely on further investigation of the intersection between processing, food properties and digestion. This will enable putting such innovative and sustainable food solutions on clearer grounds.