Cricket (Acheta domesticus) flour as meat replacer in frankfurters: Nutritional, technological, structural, and sensory characteristics

This study investigated the use of cricket flour in frankfurters as a meat replacer and its impact on nutritional, technological, structural, and sensory characteristics. Four treatments were prepared with different concentrations of cricket flour (Control, CF2.5, CF5.0, and CF7.5). There was a significantly high protein content in treatments with cricket flour addition, but without change in the fat content. The CF7.5 treatment showed significantly high SFA and PUFA contents, but there was no significant impact on MUFA content, compared with control treatment. Cricket flour significantly improved the contents of zinc, calcium, and manganese but not that of sodium. The processing loss of reformulated frankfurters was significantly reduced. Reformulated frankfurters were brownish in color compared with the control, which affected the sensory scores of those treatments. No effect on the structural characteristics of frankfurters were observed. The CF2.5 treatment appeared to be the best alternative for using edible insects in frankfurters.