Positive impact of fermented mealworms in pet food associated with preservation, antioxidant activity, anti-inflammatory effects, nutrition, and digestion

Our study developed pet food supplemented with fermented mealworms and analyzed its physicochemical properties, antioxidant activity, and overall nutritional impact. The pet food was prepared by replacing 1, 3 and 5% of the salmon in the diet with equivalent amounts of fermented mealworms. As the proportion of fermented mealworms in the pet food increased, there was a corresponding increase in the moisture content, crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber contents, and lactic acid bacteria counts of the pet food. The lactic acid content was 0.38 mg/ml in the control sample, 1.01 mg/ml, 1.18 mg/ml and 1.32 mg/ml in the samples supplemented with 1, 3 and 5% fermented mealworms, respectively. Pepsin digestibility was measured at 91.60 ± 0.75% for the control group, while there was a progressive increase in the pepsin digestibility of 91.05 ± 0.86, 95.10 ± 0.26 and 95.24 ± 1.01% in samples supplemented with either 1, 3, or 5% fermented mealworms, respectively. There was a positive correlation with respect to the total polyphenol and flavonoid content as the levels increased with the progressive addition of fermented mealworms. The 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl and 2,2′-Azinobis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) radical scavenging activities were high in the ethanol and water extracts of the pet food samples, respectively. The nitric oxide inhibition rates were measured at 10.76, 27.21 and 41.42% for the samples supplemented with 1, 3 and 5% fermented mealworms, respectively. Our study demonstrates the potential positive impact of supplementation with fermented mealworms on the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and digestibility effects of pet food.