Assessment of the quality and stability of cricket enriched krickies

Abstract

Studies show that the world population is growing really fast, and as such, the demand for more food is growing equally fast. Crickets among other insects can be an alternative source of food and protein. However, as shown by some reports, some people do not find insects palatable enough while some find their consumption disgusting. This study aims at increasing the consumption of insects by incorporating it as an ingredient in krickies, a puffed product made from maize, wheat, cricket flour and sugar by extrusion. In this study, krickie samples with different proportions of cricket flour; 0%. 5.6%, 12% and 18% were analysed for sensory acceptance and determine the effect of adding cricket powder on the sensory attributes of krickies. Results showed that adding cricket powder affected the sensory attributes of appearance, aroma, color, taste, flavor, mouthfeel and overall acceptability of the crickies. However, 5.6% was the most preferred of all the samples that had cricket powder added to them. It was therefore picked on and studied for shelf life which was found out to be more than 3 months.