Fortification of traditional egg pasta (erişte) with edible insects: nutritional quality, cooking properties and sensory characteristics evaluation.

Proximate composition, cooking quality and sensory characteristics of traditional Turkish egg pasta, erişte, fortified with edible insect and legume flours were evaluated. Egg pasta samples were produced using different blends of wheat flour: legume (lentil and white kidney bean) flour and wheat flour: edible insect (mealworm and grasshopper) flour. Optimum cooking time significantly (p < 0.05) increased with the fortification of egg pasta. The fortification of egg pasta with edible insect flours resulted in a reduced volume expansion from 236.7% (control) to 215.6% and 196.9% for grasshopper flour (W:G) and mealworm flour (W:M) samples, respectively. On the other hand, W:M and W:G samples exhibited significantly (p < 0.05) higher nutritional profile in terms of protein, ash and crude fiber content. Results showed that the smoothness of pasta was also influenced; strengthened by addition of white kidney bean flour and weakened by the addition of grasshopper flour. The received scores from sensory evaluation showed that flours including lentil flour (W:L) and white kidney bean flour (W:B) samples had higher flavor and overall acceptability values with compared to the mealworm flour (W:M), grasshopper flour (W:G) and control sample (C). © Association of Food Scientists & Technologists (India) 2020.