Microbial and biochemical characterisation of fermented house crickets (Acheta domesticus) and mealworm larvae (Tenebrio molitor)Jamnik, Polona (Avtor) Mahnič, Nik (Avtor) Ekselenski, Simon (Avtor) Pogačnik da Silva, Lea (Avtor) Čadež, Neža (Avtor) Membrino, Valentina (Avtor) Poklar Ulrih, Nataša (Avtor) Plateis, Zala (Avtor) Toplak, Nataša (Avtor) Koren, Simon (Avtor) Kulma, Martin (Avtor) Kouřimská, Lenka (Avtor) Škvorová, Petra (Avtor) Jeršek, Barbara (Avtor) antioxidative activityfermentationinsect raringmicrobial countsmicrobiomeEdible insects have a large potential to be an alternative source of proteins for human consumption. Lactic acid fermentation can further increase availability of proteins as well as increase functional value of substrates. Thus, the study aimed to microbiologically and biochemically characterise house crickets (Acheta domesticus) and mealworm larvae (Tenebrio molitor) before and after lactic acid fermentation. Both insects were shown as a suitable substrate for fermentation which lasted 48 hours. Results of microbiological characterisation using culture-dependent microbiological methods show that reared, lyophilized and milled insects have fairly high viable microbial counts determined as aerobic (>7.00 log CFU/g) and anaerobic (>6 log CFU/g) mesophilic bacteria, lactic acid bacteria (>6 log CFU/g) and enterococci (>5 log CFU/g) prior fermentations and all counts were even higher after fermentations, but no pathogens were detected in any sample. High-throughput 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing revealed that most of bacteria (>96% relative abundance) in insects’ prior fermentation are represented by Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroides and Actinobacteria and at genus level Enterococcus, Lactonifactor, Clostridium and Klebsiella dominated in house crickets, while in mealworm larvae Enterococcus, Erwinia and Pantoea were the most abundant along with Salmonella which relative abundance was reduced by nearly 100× with fermentations. Regardless of the type of insect, fermentations using the Lb. plantarum starter culture or meat starter culture resulted in the dominance of Lactobacillus, Pediococcus and Enterococcus. In samples fermented with no addition of starter culture, the same bacterial genera still prevailed, suggesting that the native bacteria (Ped. pentosaceus, Lb. graminis, Lb. sakei in both insects, and Ent. faecalis in house crickets and Ent. avium in mealworm larvae) played an important role in all fermentations. In spite of this both fermented insects differed in lactic acid concentration, free amino groups level and antioxidative activity, which were higher for mealworm larvae.20252026-04-10 16:04:28Članek v reviji181662sl