Mealworms are new food products in Europe, but consumers do not know how to cook them. Although cooking could increase the safety, acceptability, palatability, and digestibility of insects, the heating process could have deleterious effects on protein and lipid quality. Therefore, this study characterized the effects of different household cooking methods (boiling, pan-frying, vacuum cooking, and oven cooking) on the microbial load and nutritive value of mealworms, with a focus on protein digestibility and fatty acid composition. Boiling and cooking under vacuum were the most efficient techniques to reduce microbial load while maintaining the high levels of protein and polyunsaturated fatty acids of mealworms. Cooking method-related changes were very low on macronutrients content except for pan-fried mealworms which exhibited the highest lipid content. Cooking slightly changed fatty acid composition of mealworms by principally decreasing their level of saturated fatty acids but also increased the in vitro crude protein digestibility of mealworms.

蠕虫是欧洲的新食品，但消费者不知道如何烹饪。尽管烹饪可以提高昆虫的安全性，可接受性，适口性和消化率，但是加热过程可能会对蛋白质和脂质质量产生有害影响。因此，本研究表征了不同家庭烹饪方法（煮沸，煎锅，真空烹饪和烤箱烹饪）对粉虫的微生物负荷和营养价值的影响，重点是蛋白质的消化率和脂肪酸组成。真空煮沸和蒸煮是减少微生物负荷同时保持粉虫高蛋白和多不饱和脂肪酸含量的最有效技术。蒸煮方法相关的变化对宏观营养素含量的影响非常低，但煎炸粉虫的脂质含量最高。煮熟粉虫的脂肪酸组成略有改变，主要是通过降低其饱和脂肪酸的含量，但同时也增加了黄粉虫的体外粗蛋白消化率。