Protein Bars Supplemented with Extracted Mealworm Protein

Animal husbandry for food production has become an environmental concern due to the high consumption of scarce resources such as land, water and energy. Entomophagy, the practice of eating insects, is a growing area of study for its potential to help alleviate this food crisis. So the team developed a process to make a nutrition bar supplemented with mealworm protein.

Current products on the market generally use insects that are ground into a flour. Instead, the team determined a process for chemically extracting fat and protein from the mealworms. Experimentation determined the optimal conditions for the extraction while minimizing product waste. The fat was first separated using food-grade ethanol as an organic solvent. Then, protein was extracted through pH manipulation using sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid. The overall process was optimized by maximizing recycled utilities and raw materials to reduce waste, energy and cost.